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The convergence of health care expenditure in the US states

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  • Zijun Wang

Abstract

In response to rising health care costs, many have called for more effective regional health policy coordination. In this paper, we address the issue by examining the degree of convergence in per capita health care expenditure and its nine components across the US states from 1980 to 2004. The major finding is the moderate evidence of convergence in total health care expenditure and the diverse performance of the expenditure components regarding convergence. We also find hospital care to be responsible for the bulk of cross‐state convergence in total expenditure. The expenditure on prescription drugs is the most important diverging factor. Policy implications of these empirical results are discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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  • Zijun Wang, 2009. "The convergence of health care expenditure in the US states," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(1), pages 55-70, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:18:y:2009:i:1:p:55-70
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.1343
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    2. Carla Blazquez-Fernandez & David Cantarero & Patricio Perez, 2014. "Disentangling the heterogeneous income elasticity and dynamics of health expenditure," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(16), pages 1839-1854, June.
    3. Andrea Leiter & Engelbert Theurl, 2012. "The convergence of health care financing structures: empirical evidence from OECD-countries," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 13(1), pages 7-18, February.
    4. Guglielmo Maria Caporale & Juncal Cunado & Luis A. Gil-Alana & Rangan Gupta, 2018. "The relationship between healthcare expenditure and disposable personal income in the US states: a fractional integration and cointegration analysis," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 913-935, November.
    5. Sundar S Shrestha & Theodore J Thompson & Karen A Kirtland & Edward W Gregg & Gloria L Beckles & Elizabeth T Luman & Lawrence E Barker & Linda S Geiss, 2016. "Changes in Disparity in County-Level Diagnosed Diabetes Prevalence and Incidence in the United States, between 2004 and 2012," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(8), pages 1-16, August.
    6. Jay Pan & Peng Wang & Xuezheng Qin & Shufang Zhang, 2013. "Disparity and Convergence: Chinese Provincial Government Health Expenditures," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(8), pages 1-6, August.
    7. Jiajie Jin & Di Liang & Lu Shi & Jiayan Huang, 2016. "Trends in Between-Country Health Equity in Sub-Saharan Africa from 1990 to 2011: Improvement, Convergence and Reversal," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-15, June.
    8. José Villaverde & Adolfo Maza & María Hierro, 2014. "Health care expenditure disparities in the European Union and underlying factors: a distribution dynamics approach," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 251-268, September.
    9. Wen-Yi Chen, 2013. "Does healthcare financing converge? Evidence from eight OECD countries," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 279-300, December.
    10. Jesús Clemente & Angelina Lázaro-Alquézar & Antonio Montañés, 2020. "Does the Great Recession Contribute to the Convergence of Health Care Expenditures in the US States?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-7, January.
    11. Clemente, Jesús & Lázaro-Alquézar, Angelina & Montañés, Antonio, 2019. "Convergence in Spanish Public health expenditure: Has the decentralization process generated disparities?," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(5), pages 503-507.
    12. Clemente, Jesús & Lázaro-Alquézar, Angelina & Montañés, Antonio, 2019. "US state health expenditure convergence: A revisited analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 210-220.
    13. Claudiu Tiberiu Albulescu, 2022. "Health Care Expenditure in the European Union Countries: New Insights about the Convergence Process," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-16, February.
    14. Ekaterini Panopoulou & Theologos Pantelidis, 2013. "Cross‐State Disparities In Us Health Care Expenditures," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(4), pages 451-465, April.
    15. Nicholas Apergis & Tsangyao Chang & Christina Christou & Rangan Gupta, 2017. "Convergence of Health Care Expenditures Across the US States: A Reconsideration," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 133(1), pages 303-316, August.
    16. Julio Pombo-Romero & Luis Varela & Carlos Ricoy, 2013. "Diffusion of innovations in social interaction systems. An agent-based model for the introduction of new drugs in markets," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 14(3), pages 443-455, June.
    17. Mark A Zezza, 2019. "Convergence in health care spending across counties in New York from 2007 through 2016," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(4), pages 1-16, April.
    18. Mulatu F. Zerihun & Juncal Cunado & Rangan Gupta, 2017. "Are Health Care Expenditures and Personal Disposable Income Characterised by Asymmetric Behaviour? Evidence from US State-Level Data," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 131(2), pages 527-542, March.
    19. Sedat Alataş & Erkam Sarı, 2021. "An Empirical Investigation on Regional Disparities in Public Expenditures: Province Level Evidence from Turkey," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 158(1), pages 217-240, November.
    20. Chi Lau & Ka Fung & Lee Pugalis, 2014. "Is health care expenditure across Europe converging? Findings from the application of a nonlinear panel unit root test," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 4(2), pages 137-156, December.

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