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Healthcare tax credits: financial help to taxpayers or support to higher income and better educated patients? Evidence from Italy

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  • Elenka Brenna

    (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
    Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore)

Abstract

In several countries, taxpayers are given the option to detract from gross taxation a share of their out of pocket healthcare expenditure. This paper investigates the use of Healthcare Tax Credits (HTCs) in Italy through the analysis of a panel data which provides information on individual income tax from 2008 to 2014. The study focuses on the disparities emerging in the use of HTCs between Northern and Southern regions: per capita HTCs, either weighted for general population or for the number of claimants, are higher in the North than in the South of Italy. The existing differences in the average income between the two regional clusters may drive to inequalities in the out of pocket expenditure for healthcare services; however, the observed North-South gradient could also reveal possible disparities in the ability of using HTCs, mainly due to socioeconomic factors. A fixed effects OLS model is run to examine the impact of selected socioeconomic variables on regional per capita HTCs, with a particular focus on the role of education. Results corroborate the regressive imprinting of HTCs supported by literature and provide highlights on the role of education in explaining HTCs distribution among regions. Public money is reimbursed to regions where people are on average richer and better educated. More equitable objectives could be reached by allocating the same resources in the provision of services covered by NHS.

Suggested Citation

  • Elenka Brenna, 2017. "Healthcare tax credits: financial help to taxpayers or support to higher income and better educated patients? Evidence from Italy," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza def060, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    • Handle: RePEc:ctc:serie1:def060
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    File URL: http://dipartimenti.unicatt.it/economia-finanza-def060.pdf
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    Cited by:

    1. Chiara Punzo & Giulia Rivolta, 2022. "Money versus debt financed regime: Evidence from an estimated DSGE model," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza def120, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    2. Boitani, Andrea & Dragomirescu-Gaina, Catalin, 2023. "News and narratives: A cointegration analysis of Russian economic policy uncertainty," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 226(C).
    3. Valentina Colombo & Alessia Paccagnini, 2024. "Uncertainty and the Federal Reserve’s Balance Sheet Monetary Policy," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza def131, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    4. Pieroni, Luca & Roig, Melcior Rosselló & Salmasi, Luca, 2023. "Italy: Immigration and the evolution of populism," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    5. Sebastiano Della Lena & Fabrizio Panebianco, 2019. "Cultural Transmission with Incomplete Information: Parental Perceived Efficacy and Group Misrepresentation," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza def079, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    6. Basiglio Stefania & Foresta Alessandra & Turati Gilberto, 2021. "Impatience and crime. Evidence from the NLSY97," Working papers 073, Department of Economics and Statistics (Dipartimento di Scienze Economico-Sociali e Matematico-Statistiche), University of Torino.
    7. Daniele Checchi & Alessandra Fenizia & Claudio Lucifora, 2021. "PUBLIC SECTOR JOBS: Working in the public sector in Europe and the US," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza def107, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    8. Rosario Crinò & Giovanni Immordino & Salvatore Piccolo, 2018. "Fighting Mobile Crime," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza def071, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    9. Michele Tettamanzi, 2017. "E Many Pluribus Unum: A Behavioural Macro-Economic Agent Based Model," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza def062, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    10. Fanfani, Bernardo, 2022. "Tastes for discrimination in monopsonistic labour markets," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    11. Russell Davidson & Andrea Monticini, 2023. "Bootstrap Performance with Heteroskedasticity," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza def130, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    12. Irene Torrini & Claudio Lucifora & Antonio Russo, 2022. "The Long-Term Effects of Hospitalization on Health Care Expenditures: An Empirical Analysis for the Young-Old Population," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza def117, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    13. Russell Davidson & Andrea Monticini, 2018. "Improvements in Bootstrap Inference," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza def070, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    14. Elenka Brenna & Lara Gitto, 2018. "Adult education, the use of Information and Communication Technologies and the impact on quality of life: a case study," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza def073, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health-related tax credits; regional disparities; healthcare access; personal income tax.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
    • H51 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Health

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