Lukas Steinmann () (Swiss Re, Zurich) Harry Telser () (Socioeconomic Institute, University of Zurich) Peter Zweifel () (Socioeconomic Institute, University of Zurich)
Abstract
The impact of aging on healthcare expenditure (HCE) has been at the center of a prolonged debate. This paper purports to shed light on several issues. First, it presents new evidence on the relative importance of the two components of HCE that have been distinguished by Zweifel, Felder and Meier (1999), viz. the cost of morbidity and the cost of mortality (their "red herring" hypothesis claims that neglecting the mortality component results in excessive estimates of future growth of HCE). Second, it takes account of recent evidence suggesting that HCE does increase life expectancy, implying that time-to-death is an endogenous determinant of HCE. Third, it investigates the contribution of population aging to the future growth of HCE. For the case of Switzerland, it finds this contribution to be relatively small regardless of whether or not the cost of dying is accounted for, thus qualifying the "red herring" hypothesis.
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by University of Zurich, Socioeconomic Institute in its series Working Papers with number
0510.
Length: 23 pages Date of creation: Sep 2005 Date of revision:
Dec 2006 Publication status: Published in Forum for Health Economics and Policy 10(2), Article 1, 2007 Handle: RePEc:soz:wpaper:0510
Find related papers by JEL classification: J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Production
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References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Stefan Boes & Markus Lipp & Rainer Winkelmann, 2005.
"Money Illusion Under Test,"
Working Papers
0514, University of Zurich, Socioeconomic Institute.
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Other versions:
Boes, Stefan & Lipp, Markus & Winkelmann, Rainer, 2007.
"Money illusion under test,"
Economics Letters,
Elsevier, vol. 94(3), pages 332-337, March.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
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