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Social Security and the Rise in Health Spending

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  • Kai Zhao

    (University of Connecticut)

Abstract

In a quantitative model of Social Security with endogenous health, I argue that Social Security increases the aggregate health spending of the economy because it redistributes resources to the elderly whose marginal propensity to spend on health is high. I show by using computational experiments that the expansion of US Social Security can account for over a third of the dramatic rise in US health spending from 1950 to 2000. In addition, Social Security has a spill-over effect on Medicare. As Social Security increases health spending, it also increases the payments from Medicare, thus raising its financial burden.

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  • Kai Zhao, 2014. "Social Security and the Rise in Health Spending," Working papers 2014-04, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:uct:uconnp:2014-04
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Social Security; Health Spending; Saving; Longevity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E20 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • E60 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - General
    • H30 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - General
    • I00 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - General - - - General

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