IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zbw/caprev/253655.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Costly Efficiencies: Health Care Spending, COVID-19, and the Public/Private Health Care Debate

Author

Listed:
  • Mouré, Christopher

Abstract

* Winner of the 2022 RECASP First Essay Prize * Proponents of private healthcare often claim that the private sector is more ‘efficient’ at delivering healthcare services. This paper tests the privatization thesis in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a large sample of countries, I investigate how healthcare privatization affects the correlation between COVID-19 death rates and healthcare spending (as a share of GDP). In countries with healthcare that is mostly public, I find no correlation. However, in countries with significant healthcare privatization, I find that greater healthcare spending was associated with more COVID-19 deaths. This result is consistent with the theory of ‘capital as power’, which argues that to earn profits, the private sector seeks to strategically limit the provision of social goods.

Suggested Citation

  • Mouré, Christopher, 2022. "Costly Efficiencies: Health Care Spending, COVID-19, and the Public/Private Health Care Debate," Review of Capital as Power, Capital As Power - Toward a New Cosmology of Capitalism, vol. 2(2), pages 17-45.
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:caprev:253655
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/253655/1/20220500_moure_costly_efficiencies.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nitzan, Jonathan & Bichler, Shimshon, 2009. "Capital as Power. A Study of Order and Creorder," EconStor Books, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 157973.
    2. Sima Berendes & Peter Heywood & Sandy Oliver & Paul Garner, 2011. "Quality of Private and Public Ambulatory Health Care in Low and Middle Income Countries: Systematic Review of Comparative Studies," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(4), pages 1-10, April.
    3. Andrew T. Levin & William P. Hanage & Nana Owusu-Boaitey & Kensington B. Cochran & Seamus P. Walsh & Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, 2020. "Assessing the Age Specificity of Infection Fatality Rates for COVID-19: Systematic Review, Meta-analysis, & Public Policy Implications," NBER Working Papers 27597, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Sanjay Basu & Jason Andrews & Sandeep Kishore & Rajesh Panjabi & David Stuckler, 2012. "Comparative Performance of Private and Public Healthcare Systems in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(6), pages 1-14, June.
    5. Gerdtham, Ulf-G. & Sogaard, Jes & Andersson, Fredrik & Jonsson, Bengt, 1992. "An econometric analysis of health care expenditure: A cross-section study of the OECD countries," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 63-84, May.
    6. Thorstein Veblen, 1908. "On the Nature of Capital: Investment, Intangible Assets, and the Pecuniary Magnate," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 23(1), pages 104-136.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mouré, Christopher, 2021. "Costly Efficiencies: Health Care Spending, COVID-19, and the Public/Private Health Care Debate," Working Papers on Capital as Power 2021/05, Capital As Power - Toward a New Cosmology of Capitalism.
    2. Leonard, David K. & Bloom, Gerald & Hanson, Kara & O’Farrell, Juan & Spicer, Neil, 2013. "Institutional Solutions to the Asymmetric Information Problem in Health and Development Services for the Poor," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 71-87.
    3. Nitzan, Jonathan & Bichler, Shimshon, 2019. "CasP's 'Differential Accumulation' versus Veblen's 'Differential Advantage' (Revised and Expanded)," Working Papers on Capital as Power 2019/01, Capital As Power - Toward a New Cosmology of Capitalism.
    4. Cristian A Herrera & Gabriel Rada & Lucy Kuhn-Barrientos & Ximena Barrios, 2014. "Does Ownership Matter? An Overview of Systematic Reviews of the Performance of Private For-Profit, Private Not-For-Profit and Public Healthcare Providers," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(12), pages 1-18, December.
    5. Cammett, Melani & Şaşmaz, Aytuğ, 2017. "Political Context, Organizational Mission, and the Quality of Social Services: Insights from the Health Sector in Lebanon," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 120-132.
    6. Mouré, Christopher, 2022. "No Shortage of Profit: Technological Change, Chip 'Shortages', and Capital Accumulation in the Semiconductor Business," EconStor Theses, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 262742, September.
    7. Juliet Mwanga-Amumpaire & Tobias Alfvén & Celestino Obua & Karin Källander & Richard Migisha & Cecilia Stålsby Lundborg & Grace Ndeezi & Joan Nakayaga Kalyango, 2021. "Appropriateness of Care for Common Childhood Infections at Low-Level Private Health Facilities in a Rural District in Western Uganda," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-16, July.
    8. Sujha Subramanian & Robai Gakunga & Joseph Kibachio & Gladwell Gathecha & Patrick Edwards & Elijah Ogola & Gerald Yonga & Naftali Busakhala & Esther Munyoro & Jeremiah Chakaya & Nancy Ngugi & Nyawira , 2018. "Cost and affordability of non-communicable disease screening, diagnosis and treatment in Kenya: Patient payments in the private and public sectors," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(1), pages 1-16, January.
    9. Bichler, Shimshon & Nitzan, Jonathan, 2018. "CasP's 'Differential Accumulation' versus Veblen's 'Differential Advantage'," Working Papers on Capital as Power 2018/08, Capital As Power - Toward a New Cosmology of Capitalism.
    10. Zachary Wagner & Somalee Banerjee & Manoj Mohanan & Neeraj Sood, 2023. "Does the market reward quality? Evidence from India," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 467-505, September.
    11. Cochrane, David Troy, 2015. "What’s Love Got to Do with It? Diamonds and the Accumulation of De Beers, 1935-55," EconStor Theses, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 157995, September.
    12. Muhammad Usman & Zhiqiang Ma & Muhammad Wasif Zafar & Abdul Haseeb & Rana Umair Ashraf, 2019. "Are Air Pollution, Economic and Non-Economic Factors Associated with Per Capita Health Expenditures? Evidence from Emerging Economies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-22, June.
    13. Nachtnebel, Matthias & O'Mahony, Ashleigh & Pillai, Nandini & Hort, Kris, 2015. "Effectively engaging the private sector through vouchers and contracting – A case for analysing health governance and context," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 193-200.
    14. Idrissa Beogo & Chieh-Yu Liu & Yiing-Jenq Chou & Chuan-Yu Chen & Nicole Huang, 2014. "Health-Care-Seeking Patterns in the Emerging Private Sector in Burkina Faso: A Population-Based Study of Urban Adult Residents in Ouagadougou," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(5), pages 1-11, May.
    15. Rahul A Sirohi, 2024. "Corporate power and the rise of intangibles: A study of Indian firms," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 56(3), pages 865-882, May.
    16. Bo Li & Muhammad Mohiuddin & Qian Liu, 2019. "Determinants and Differences of Township Hospital Efficiency among Chinese Provinces," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-16, May.
    17. Emma Akpan & Surajudeen Abiola Abdulrahman & Nne Pepple, 2020. "Comparison of the Level of Adherence to Laboratory Quality Management System between Public and Private Secondary Health Facilities in Southern Nigeria," Global Journal of Health Science, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 12(12), pages 1-27, November.
    18. Fattahi, Mohammad & Keyvanshokooh, Esmaeil & Kannan, Devika & Govindan, Kannan, 2023. "Resource planning strategies for healthcare systems during a pandemic," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 304(1), pages 192-206.
    19. Jordan Brennan, 2013. "The Power Underpinnings, and Some Distributional Consequences, of Trade and Investment Liberalisation in Canada," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(5), pages 715-747, October.
    20. Murthy, Vasudeva N.R. & Okunade, Albert A., 2009. "The core determinants of health expenditure in the African context: Some econometric evidence for policy," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 57-62, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    capital as power; COVID-19; health; profit; sabotage;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State
    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:caprev:253655. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.capitalaspower.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.