IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/applec/v34y2002i17p2105-2113.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Public financing of health expenditures, insurance, and health outcomes

Author

Listed:
  • Mark Berger
  • Jodi Messer

Abstract

The effects of public financing of health expenditures, insurance coverage and other factors on health outcomes are examined within health production models estimated using 1960-1992 data across 20 OECD countries. Mortality rates are found to depend on the mix of health care expenditures and the type of health insurance coverage. Increases in the publicly financed share of health expenditures are associated with increases in mortality rates. Increases in inpatient and ambulatory insurance coverage are associated with reduced mortality. The effects of GDP, health expenditures and age structure on mortality are similar to those in previous studies. Tobacco use, alcohol use, fat consumption, female labour force participation, and education levels are also significantly related to overall mortality rates. Increases in income inequality are associated with lower mortality rates, suggesting that the negative relationship between inequality and health outcomes suggested by some previous studies does not remain when a more complete model is estimated. The result that increases in public financing increase mortality rates is robust to a number of changes in specifications and samples. Thus, as countries increase the level of their health expenditures, they may want to avoid increasing the proportion of their expenditures that are publicly financed.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:34:y:2002:i:17:p:2105-2113
    DOI: 10.1080/00036840210135665
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00036840210135665
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lant Pritchett & Lawrence H. Summers, 1996. "Wealthier is Healthier," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 31(4), pages 841-868.
    2. Joseph P. Newhouse & Lindy J. Friedlander, 1980. "The Relationship between Medical Resources and Measures of Health: Some Additional Evidence," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 15(2), pages 200-218.
    3. Wolfe, Barbara L., 1986. "Health status and medical expenditures: Is there a link?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 22(10), pages 993-999, January.
    4. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    5. Kenkel, Donald S, 1991. "Health Behavior, Health Knowledge, and Schooling," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(2), pages 287-305, April.
    6. 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.
    7. Parkin, David & McGuire, Alistair & Yule, Brian, 1987. "Aggregate health care expenditures and national income : Is health care a luxury good?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 109-127, June.
    8. Blomqvist, A. G. & Carter, R. A. L., 1997. "Is health care really a luxury?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 207-229, April.
    9. Grossman, Michael, 1972. "On the Concept of Health Capital and the Demand for Health," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 80(2), pages 223-255, March-Apr.
    10. Richard Auster & Irving Leveson & Deborah Sarachek, 1969. "The Production of Health, an Exploratory Study," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 4(4), pages 411-436.
    11. Hitiris, Theo & Posnett, John, 1992. "The determinants and effects of health expenditure in developed countries," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 173-181, August.
    12. Gerdtham, Ulf-G. & Jonsson, Bengt, 1991. "Conversion factor instability in international comparisons of health care expenditure," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 227-234, July.
    13. Le Grand, Julian, 1987. "Inequalities in health : Some international comparisons," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-2), pages 182-191.
    14. Mark C. Berger & J. Paul Leigh, 1989. "Schooling, Self-Selection, and Health," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 24(3), pages 433-455.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    More about this item

    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:taf:applec:v:34:y:2002:i:17:p:2105-2113. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Chris Longhurst). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAEC20 .

    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 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.

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.