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Is the United States an outlier in health care and health outcomes? A preliminary analysis

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  • William Comanor
  • H. Frech
  • Richard Miller

Abstract

U.S. health care is often seen as an outlier, with high costs and only middling outcomes. This view implies a household production function for health, with both health care and lifestyle serving as inputs. Building on earlier work by Miller and Frech (2004), we make this argument explicit by estimating a production function from augmented OECD data. This allows us to determine whether the U.S. is literally an outlier; which turns on whether the United States is very far off the production surface. We find that the Unites States is somewhat less productive than the average OECD country, but that a substantial part of the observed difference results from poor lifestyle choices, particularly obesity. Copyright Springer Science + Business Media, Inc. 2006

Suggested Citation

  • William Comanor & H. Frech & Richard Miller, 2006. "Is the United States an outlier in health care and health outcomes? A preliminary analysis," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 3-23, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:ijhcfe:v:6:y:2006:i:1:p:3-23
    DOI: 10.1007/s10754-006-6863-8
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    Cited by:

    1. Ferdi Botha, 2016. "The Good African Society Index," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 126(1), pages 57-77, March.
    2. Sam Peltzman, 2014. "Socialized medicine and mortality," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 179-205, September.
    3. Melberg, Hans Olav, 2011. "Some problems with international comparisons of health spending – and a suggestion about how to quantify the size of the problems," HERO Online Working Paper Series 2011:4, University of Oslo, Health Economics Research Programme.
    4. Verguet, Stéphane & Jamison, Dean T., 2013. "Performance in rate of decline of adult mortality in the OECD, 1970–2010," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 137-142.
    5. Kevin x.d. Huang & Hui He & Sheng-ti Hung, 2013. "Substituting Leisure for Health Expenditure: A General Equilibrium-Based Empirical Investigation," Vanderbilt University Department of Economics Working Papers 13-00020, Vanderbilt University Department of Economics.
    6. Gallet, Craig A. & Doucouliagos, Hristos, 2017. "The impact of healthcare spending on health outcomes: A meta-regression analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 9-17.
    7. G. Emmanuel Guindon & Paul Contoyannis, 2012. "A Second Look At Pharmaceutical Spending As Determinants Of Health Outcomes In Canada," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(12), pages 1477-1495, December.
    8. J. Mark Ramseyer, 2009. "Universal Health Insurance and the Effect of Cost Containment on Mortality Rates: Strokes and Heart Attacks in Japan," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 6(2), pages 309-342, June.

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