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Growth and Containment of Health Care Expenditure in Industrial Countries

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  • Theo Hitiris

Abstract

Health Expenditure has been rising faster than the growth of income in most industrial countries. The objective of this paper is to discover what factors determined Health Expenditure per head of population in the G7 Countries and whether governments could control them. The analysis has identified three factors that affect Health Expenditure positively: income per head, the ageing population and the share of public expenditure on GDP. None of these variables can be controlled by the government for the sole purpose of containing the growth of Health Care Expenditure. Therefore, only reform of national Health Service Systems could effectively contain the growth of Health Spending. The reforms introduced by some countries in the early 1990s had no significant effect on cost containment with the result that health care expenditure continued to rise in some faster than before. The exception is Japan which managed to achieve a significant downturn in the growth of health expenditure.

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  • Theo Hitiris, "undated". "Growth and Containment of Health Care Expenditure in Industrial Countries," Discussion Papers 99/15, Department of Economics, University of York.
    • Handle: RePEc:yor:yorken:99/15
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    File URL: https://www.york.ac.uk/media/economics/documents/discussionpapers/1999/9915.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Guisan, M.C. & Aguayo, E., 2007. "Health Expenditure, Poverty and Economic Development in Latin America 2000-2005," International Journal of Applied Econometrics and Quantitative Studies, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 4(2), pages 5-24.
    2. Julian Ramajo & Javier Salinas & Francisco Pedraja & Miguel Márquez, 2007. "Competition in the allocation of public spending: a new model to analyse the interaction between expenditure categories," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 8(4), pages 1-7.
    3. Rihem Zeiri & Aida Bouzir & Mohamed H di Benhadj Mbarek & Saloua Benammou, 2023. "The Link between Economic Growth, Air Pollution and Health Expenditure in the G7 Countries," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 13(4), pages 156-168, July.
    4. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:8:y:2007:i:4:p:1-7 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Ismael Sanz & Francisco Javier Velázquez, 2002. "Determinants of the Composition of Government Expenditure by Functions," European Economy Group Working Papers 13, European Economy Group.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health care expenditure; cost containment;

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models

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