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Ageing and health‐care expenditure: the red herring argument revisited*

* This paper is a replication of an original study

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  • Meena Seshamani
  • Alastair Gray

Abstract

Zweifel and colleagues have previously proposed that proximity to death is a more important influence on health‐care costs than age, suggesting that demographic change per se will not have a large impact on future aggregate health expenditure. However, issues of econometric methodology have led to challenges of the robustness of these findings. This paper revisits the analysis. Using a longitudinal hospital data set from Oxfordshire, England, the two‐step Heckman model from the Zweifel study is first replicated, to find that neither age nor proximity to death have a significant effect on hospital costs. Econometric problems with the model are demonstrated, and instead a two‐part model shows both age and proximity to death to have significant effects on quarterly hospital costs. Cost predictions, calculated with bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals, further demonstrate that while age may significantly affect quarterly costs, these cost changes are small compared to the tripling of quarterly costs that occurs with approaching death in the last year of life. The analyses show the importance of model selection to properly assess the determinants of health‐care expenditures. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Meena Seshamani & Alastair Gray, 2004. "Ageing and health‐care expenditure: the red herring argument revisited," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(4), pages 303-314, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:13:y:2004:i:4:p:303-314
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.826
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. James J. Heckman, 1976. "The Common Structure of Statistical Models of Truncation, Sample Selection and Limited Dependent Variables and a Simple Estimator for Such Models," NBER Chapters, in: Annals of Economic and Social Measurement, Volume 5, number 4, pages 475-492, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. 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.
    3. Peter Zweifel & Stefan Felder & Markus Meiers, 1999. "Ageing of population and health care expenditure: a red herring?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 8(6), pages 485-496, September.
    4. Andrew M. Jones, 2012. "health econometrics," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics,, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Patrick Puhani, 2000. "The Heckman Correction for Sample Selection and Its Critique," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(1), pages 53-68, February.
    6. Christian Salas & James P. Raftery, 2001. "Econometric issues in testing the age neutrality of health care expenditure," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 10(7), pages 669-671, October.
    7. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    8. Peter Zweifel & Stefan Felder & Markus Meier, 2001. "Reply to: econometric issues in testing the age neutrality of health care expenditure," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 10(7), pages 673-674, October.
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    Replication

    This item is a replication of:
  • Peter Zweifel & Stefan Felder & Markus Meiers, 1999. "Ageing of population and health care expenditure: a red herring?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 8(6), pages 485-496, September.
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