The dynamics of financing health care among various levels of government and the private sector are rapidly changing; structural relationships among health care providers are also being altered. These changes are placing increased importance on State-level expenditure estimates that will be instrumental in measuring the differential impact of Federal policies and State-specific initiatives on individual States. This article presents personal health care expenditures (PHCE) for 1980-93. Statistics show wide variation in level and rate of growth of regional spending per person. These statistics also quantify differences in both the percent of health care costs in each State borne by Medicare and Medicaid and in the proportion of each State's economy devoted to the provision of health care.
This study used panel data regression analysis to evaluate the long-term effects of several measures of U.S. education expenditure on unemployment rates in 50 states and Washington D.C. over 25 years. The data included state-level statistics for fiscal effort, graduation rates, education spending per pupil, gross state product per capita, welfare spending, health spending, political party affiliation, union versus nonunion states, and unemployment rates. Results find that the best way to effectively reduce unemployment is investment in improving the quality of human capital through funding education. Findings specifically conclude that over the long term, investment in human capital through education as defined by per-pupil spending and health services could play a significant role in reducing unemployment rates.
This study used panel data regression analysis to evaluate the long-term effects of several measures of U.S. education expenditure on unemployment rates in 50 states and Washington D.C. over 25 years. The data included state-level statistics for fiscal effort, graduation rates, education spending per pupil, gross state product per capita, welfare spending, health spending, political party affiliation, union versus nonunion states, and unemployment rates. Results find that the best way to effectively reduce unemployment is investment in improving the quality of human capital through funding education. Findings specifically conclude that over the long term, investment in human capital through education as defined by per-pupil spending and health services could play a significant role in reducing unemployment rates.
In: Wiadomości statystyczne / Glówny Urza̜d Statystyczny, Polskie Towarzystwo Statystyczne: czasopismo Głównego Urze̜du Statystycznego i Polskiego Towarzystwa = The Polish statistician, Band 60, Heft 6, S. 66-82
Declines in income, high deficits and debt (caused by the global financial crisis of 2008–2010) forced many countries to take action to contribute to saving and changing socio-economic structure. The study shows the consequences of the downturn for the healthcare sector. The article aims to provide answers to questions concerning the adjustment of health expenditure, in particular the scale and pace of their possible reduction in high-pressure situations on the part of public finances. The article describes evolution of basic economic parameters, then the figures and trends in the different categories of health spending. Also conditions for rescue programs on an international scale are presented.
The goal of universal health coverage (UHC) requires that families who get needed health care do not suffer financial hardship as a result. This can be measured by instances of impoverishment, when a household's consumption including out-of-pocket spending on health is more than the poverty line but its consumption, excluding out-of-pocket spending, is less than the poverty line. This links UHC directly to the policy goal of reducing poverty. We find impoverishment due to out-of-pocket spending even in countries where the entire population is officially covered by a health insurance scheme or by national or subnational health services. Incidence is negatively correlated with the share of total health spending channelled through social security funds and other government agencies. Out-of-pocket spending on health can add to the poverty head count and the depth of poverty by diverting household spending from non-health budget items. The scale of such impoverishment varies between countries and depends on the poverty line but might in some low-income countries account for as much as four percentage points of the poverty head count. Increasing the share of total health expenditure that is prepaid, especially through taxes and mandatory contributions, can help reduce impoverishment.
In this study, we analyzed healthcare provision and health expenditure across six Mediterranean countries that adopt the National Health System (Beveridge model) and that form part of the European Union (EU) with the main aim being that of analyzing and comparing out-of-pocket health spending in countries with a European Mediterranean connection. To this end, we considered various economic indicators and statistics to derive commonalities and differences across these countries and also compared trends in these indicators to those observed across the rest of the EU. We then analyzed these findings in light of other data related to the quality of healthcare delivery and the infrastructure of the health system and discussed recent developments in healthcare within each country and the main challenges faced by the respective health systems. The results show that on average, Mediterranean countries spend less on total healthcare expenditure (THE) than the EU average, both as a proportion of GDP, as well as in per capita terms. This is primarily driven by lower-than-EU-average public funding of healthcare. The 2008/2009 macro-economic and financial crisis had a significant impact on the countries under review, and explains the persistent reductions in public health spending as part of the austerity measures put in force across sectors. On the flipside, Mediterranean countries have a higher presence of private health providers in total funding, thereby explaining the higher Out-of-Pocket (OOPs) health expenditures in these countries relative to the EU-average. With regard to the overall health infrastructure in these countries, we observed that although the supply of physicians is largely in line with the rest of the EU, there is under-supply when it comes to hospital beds. This may be symptomatic of lower government funding. Nonetheless, all countries score highly in the evaluation of the quality of health services, as recorded by international rankings like the WHO's 2000 metric, whereas health system performance ...
In this study, we analyzed healthcare provision and health expenditure across six Mediterranean countries that adopt the National Health System (Beveridge model) and that form part of the European Union (EU) with the main aim being that of analyzing and comparing out-of-pocket health spending in countries with a European Mediterranean connection. To this end, we considered various economic indicators and statistics to derive commonalities and differences across these countries and also compared trends in these indicators to those observed across the rest of the EU. We then analyzed these findings in light of other data related to the quality of healthcare delivery and the infrastructure of the health system and discussed recent developments in healthcare within each country and the main challenges faced by the respective health systems. The results show that on average, Mediterranean countries spend less on total healthcare expenditure (THE) than the EU average, both as a proportion of GDP, as well as in per capita terms. This is primarily driven by lower-than-EU-average public funding of healthcare. The 2008/2009 macro-economic and financial crisis had a significant impact on the countries under review, and explains the persistent reductions in public health spending as part of the austerity measures put in force across sectors. On the flipside, Mediterranean countries have a higher presence of private health providers in total funding, thereby explaining the higher Out-of-Pocket (OOPs) health expenditures in these countries relative to the EU-average. With regard to the overall health infrastructure in these countries, we observed that although the supply of physicians is largely in line with the rest of the EU, there is under-supply when it comes to hospital beds. This may be symptomatic of lower government funding. Nonetheless, all countries score highly in the evaluation of the quality of health services, as recorded by international rankings like the WHO's 2000 metric, whereas health system performance indicators, namely mortality rates and life expectancy reveal favorable health outcomes in the Mediterranean EU countries. The findings in this paper may be seen in light of the Mediterranean region's lifestyle in terms of diet, health behavior, health beliefs and shared culture. In particular, the higher out-of-pocket expenditure may reflect the tendency for one-to-one relationships with private clinicians and the pursuit of person-centered care (1). Additionally, the Mediterranean people may not be as disciplined as their European counterparts in accessing and using the public health sector. The lower THE also reflects the fact that the Mediterranean countries are less wealthy than the more economically-advanced European countries. ; peer-reviewed