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This study describes the macroeconomic determinants of health care spending in a broad context using time series data from Pakistan on economic, demographic, social, and political variables. The data spans a period from 1972- 2006 and was analyzed using cointegration and error correction approaches. All variables were found to be first difference stationary and the results confirm the presence of one cointegrating vector. This proves the existence of a long-run relationship between public health care expenditures and the other variables used in the model. The income elasticity of public health care expenditures is estimated at 0.23. As this value is less than unity it suggests that, contrary to most of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries health care qualifies as a necessity in Pakistan. Urbanization and unemployment are variables that have a negative effect on health care expenditures, with elasticity values of -1.29 and -0.32 respectively, implying that it is costly to provide health care to residents of remote rural areas of Pakistan.

This article presents data on health care spending for the United States, covering expenditures for various types of medical services and products and their sources of funding from 1960 to 1994. Although these statistics for 1994 show the slowest growth in more than three decades, health spending continued to grow faster than the overall economy. The Federal Government continued to fund an increasing share of health care expenditures in 1994, offset by a falling share from out-of-pocket sources. Shares paid by State and local governments and by other private payers including private health insurance remained unchanged from 1993.

The study examines the long run relationship between public health expenditure and under-five mortality rate in 15 West African countries over the period of 1991-2015 with the use of panel fully modified least square (FMOLS). The empirical analysis is made up of both aggregate and disaggregated model. Based on the findings, long run relationship between per capita health expenditure and under-five mortality rate is confirmed. Further evidence indicates that public health expenditure has a significant impact on the rate of under-five mortality. Thus, it is revealed that an increase in health expenditure among West African countries would lead to a drastic reduction in infant mortality rate in the region. Furthermore, it is asserted that institutional quality, female literacy rate and immunization are central for reducing under-five mortality rate in the region. Hence, it is suggested that the quality of institutions, female literacy rate and immunizations which are often neglected in the literature should be accorded considerable priority in policy formulations. Also, governments of West African countries should increase the rate of health expenditure in their respective countries.

The major goal of a household is to maximise the satisfaction of the needs of its members through the consumption of appropriate goods and services. One of the main needs, especially in households with people with disabilities, is health protection, which entails comparatively large financial outlays. The aim of this study is to recognise regularities in health expenditure of households with disabled people, to assess the significance of health expenditure in the structure of these households' expenditure, and to attempt to identify the determinants of health expenditure. The study is based on data obtained from two editions of Statistics Poland's household budget survey, performed in 2009 and in 2019. The study presents an analysis of the diversification of the level and structure of the health-related expenditure of households in Poland. The power-exponential model was used to identify the determinants of these expenses. The analysis shows that households with disabled people have a lower disposable income and, at the same time, incur higher health expenses. Health-related expenditure in households with disabled people is mainly determined by: age, level of income, the fact whether a household member/members is/are a person/s with a, significant degree of disability, and source of income.

The authors examine the trajectory of health expenditures in Latin American countries. The authors apply standard fixed effects and dynamic models to explore the factors associated with the growth of total health expenditures as well as its main components namely, government health expenditures and out-of-pocket payments. Their results suggest that, after taking other factors into consideration, health expenditures in general do not grow faster than the Gross National Product (GNP). The authors confirm the existence of fungibility, where external aid for health reduces government health spending and out-of-pocket expenses from domestic sources. The study also finds that government health expenditure and out-of-pocket payments follow the same paths in time but vary for countries at different levels of economic development; the same is true for health expenditure growth.

This study evaluates the impact of health care expenditure by the government on health sector outcomes in Pakistan by using data from the period 1982 to 2016. To examine whether the variables are stationary, the ADF test is run whereas the relationship among the variables is tested through the ARDL model technique. The empirical result from the regression equation shows that healthcare expenditure affects significantly the health sector outcome i.e., a decrease in infant deaths in the long run. Bilateral and multilateral fund assistance becomes a part of health expenditure in less progressive countries which is helpful for increasing the resource allocation in the vital segment of the economy. Hence funds allocated for health care expenditure need to be sensibly utilized because it will help in achieving a portion of the Millennium Development Goals. Improved wellbeing can be achieved as an outcome of enhanced capacities of the health sector as a result of the proper allocation of public healthcare funds.

Background: Out-of-pocket health expenditures leave households exposed to the risk of financial catastrophe and poverty whenever they entail significant dissaving or the sale of key household assets. Even relatively small expenditures on health can be financially disastrous for poor households and similarly, large health care expenditures can lead to financial catastrophe and bankruptcy for rich households. Objective: There is increasing evidence that out-of-pocket expenditures act as a financial barrier to accessing health care, and are a source of catastrophic expenditures and impoverishment. This paper estimates the burden of out-of-pocket payments in Kenya; the incidence and intensity of catastrophic health care expenditure and impoverishment in Kenya. Methods: Using Kenya Household Health Expenditures and Utilization Survey data of 2007, the study uses both descriptive and econometric analysis to investigate the incidence and intensity of catastrophic health expenditures and impoverishment as well as the determinants of catastrophic health expenditures. To estimate the incidence and intensity of catastrophic expenditures and impoverishment, the study used both Wagstaff and van Doorslaer, (2002) and Xu et al. (2005) and applied various thresholds to demonstrate the sensitivity of catastrophic measures. For determinants of catastrophic health expenditures, a logit model was employed. Findings: Among those who utilized health care, 11.7 percent experienced catastrophic expenditures and 4 percent were impoverished by health care payments. In addition, approximately 2.5 million individuals were pushed into poverty as a result of paying for health care. The poor experienced the highest incidence of catastrophic expenditures. Conclusion: The paper recommends that the government should establish avenues for reducing the burden of out-of-pocket expenditures borne by households. This could be through a legal requirement for everyone to belong to a health insurance and targeting the poor, the elderly and chronically ill through the devolved system of the government and devolved funds.

The last two decades have witnessed a decrease in public health expenditure relative to total health spending. One may ask whether this decreasing role of Government expenditure in the financing of health care is due to mature options on the desired health care system or is more the result of Governments complying with more binding budget constraints. In this paper, we provide a first answer to this question, based on evidence for a set of OECD countries. The main point of the paper can be easily stated: the observed smaller role of public financing of health expenditures in total public expenditure is the result, to a significant extent, of exogenous political pressures for lower Government budget deficits. Given an overall budget ceiling, there is no evidence supporting a general time change in health spending priority in the budget bargaining process. However, we do find that Government budget constraints lead to lower priority of health care in the Government's budget allocation process. This conclusion seems to hold whether health public spending is determined by a bargaining process within the Government or by population needs. At least, the empirical evidence provided suggests that more research on the political process governing health care expenditures is desirable. ; N/A