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Health status and medical expenditures: Is there a link?

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  • Wolfe, Barbara L.

Abstract

Until now, cross-national studies have not demonstrated a positive relationship between health care expenditures and improved health status, as measured by such indicators as age-adjusted mortality rates. It has therefore been argued that cutting expenditures will not have a negative effect upon health status. Using health and life-style data from the OECD for Germany, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, France, Sweden and the United States, this study finds that when one holds constant those changes in life style that have an impact upon health (e.g. smoking, drinking, traffic accidents, dangers on the job) and adjusts for inflation and population size, health care expenditures do bear a positive relationship to health status. This suggests that reductions in health care expenditures may well have some cost in terms of overall health.

Suggested Citation

  • Wolfe, Barbara L., 1986. "Health status and medical expenditures: Is there a link?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 22(10), pages 993-999, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:22:y:1986:i:10:p:993-999
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Jack, William & Lewis, Maureen, 2009. "Health investments and economic growth : macroeconomic evidence and microeconomic foundations," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4877, The World Bank.
    2. Jaume Puig-Junoy, 1998. "Measuring health production performance in the OECD," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(4), pages 255-259.
    3. Erika Laranjeira & Helena Szrek, 2016. "Going beyond life expectancy in assessments of health systems’ performance: life expectancy adjusted by perceived health status," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 133-161, June.
    4. Tomoki Fujii, 2018. "Sources of health financing and health outcomes: A panel data analysis," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(12), pages 1996-2015, December.
    5. Deepak Kumar Behera & Umakant Dash, 2020. "Is health expenditure effective for achieving healthcare goals? Empirical evidence from South-East Asia Region," Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 4(2), pages 593-618, June.
    6. Garas, Antonios & Guthmuller, Sophie & Lapatinas, Athanasios, 2019. "The development of nations conditions the disease space," Working Papers 2019-09, Joint Research Centre, European Commission (Ispra site).
    7. Oliver Fritz & Peter Mayerhofer & Reinhard Haller & Gerhard Streicher & Florian Bachner & Herwig Ostermann, 2013. "Die regionalwirtschaftlichen Effekte der österreichischen Krankenanstalten," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 46672.
    8. ŞENTÜRK, İsmail & Ali, Amjad, 2019. "Socioeconomic Determinants of Gender Specific Life Expectancy in Turkey: A Time Series Analysis," MPRA Paper 97815, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Mohanty, Ranjan Kumar & Behera, Deepak Kumar, 2020. "How Effective is Public Health Care Expenditure in Improving Health Outcome? An Empirical Evidence from the Indian States," Working Papers 20/300, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
    10. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Loganathan, Nanthakumar & Mujahid, Nooreen & Ali, Amjad & Nawaz, Ahmed, 2015. "Determinants of Life Expectancy and its Prospects under the Role of Economic Misery: A Case of Pakistan," MPRA Paper 67167, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 10 Oct 2015.
    11. James W. Shaw & William C. Horrace & Ronald J. Vogel, 2002. "The Productivity of Pharmaceuticals in Improving Health: An Analysis of the OECD Health Data," HEW 0206001, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 11 May 2003.
    12. Mark Berger & Jodi Messer, 2002. "Public financing of health expenditures, insurance, and health outcomes," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(17), pages 2105-2113.
    13. Muhammad Shahbaz & Nanthakumar Loganathan & Nooreen Mujahid & Amjad Ali & Ahmed Nawaz, 2016. "Determinants of Life Expectancy and its Prospects Under the Role of Economic Misery: A Case of Pakistan," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 126(3), pages 1299-1316, April.
    14. Filmer, Deon & Pritchett, Lant, 1997. "Child mortality and public spending on health : how much does money matter?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1864, The World Bank.
    15. Emmanuelle Piérard, 2016. "The effect of health care expenditures on self-rated health status and the Health Utility Index: Evidence from Canada," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 1-21, March.
    16. Ali, Amjad & Audi, Marc, 2019. "Economic Misery, Urbanization and Life Expectancy in MENA Nations: An Empirical Analysis," MPRA Paper 93459, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Blázquez-Fernández, Carla & González-Prieto, Noelia & Moreno-Mencía, Patricia, 2013. "Pharmaceutical Expenditure as a Determinant of Health Outcomes in EU Countries/El gasto farmacéutico como determinante de los resultados en salud en países de la UE," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 31, pages 379-396, Septiembr.
    18. James Thornton, 2011. "Does more medical care improve population health? New evidence for an old controversy," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(24), pages 3325-3336.
    19. Fogel, Robert W, 1994. "Economic Growth, Population Theory, and Physiology: The Bearing of Long-Term Processes on the Making of Economic Policy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(3), pages 369-395, June.
    20. Patrice Flynn & Martcia Wade & John Holahan, 1997. "State health reform: Effects on labor markets and economic activity," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(2), pages 219-236.
    21. Maksym Obrizan & George L. Wehby, 2012. "Health Expenditures And Life Expectancy Around The World: A Quantile Regression Approach," Discussion Papers 47, Kyiv School of Economics.
    22. Audi, Marc & Ali, Amjad, 2016. "Socio-Economic Status and Life Expectancy in Lebanon: An Empirical Analysis," MPRA Paper 72900, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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