TY - JOUR
PY - 2014//
TI - The influence of (public) health expenditure on longevity
JO - International journal of public health
A1 - Aísa, Rosa
A1 - Clemente, Jesús
A1 - Pueyo, Fernando
SP - 867
EP - 875
VL - 59
IS - 5
N2 - OBJECTIVES: We report new evidence on the contribution of health expenditure to increasing life expectancy in OECD countries, differentiating the effects of public and private health expenditures.
METHODS: A theoretical model is presented and estimated though a cross-country fixed effects multiple regression analysis for a sample of OECD countries over the period 1980-2000.
RESULTS: Although the effect of aggregate health expenditure is not conclusive, public health expenditure plays a significant role in enhancing longevity. However, its influence diminishes as the size of the public health sector on GDP expands, reaching a maximum around the 8 %.
CONCLUSIONS: With the influence of public health expenditure being positive, the ambiguous effect of the aggregate expenditure suggests that the weight of public and private health sectors matters, the second having a lower impact on longevity. This might explain the poor evolution of the life expectancy in countries with a high amount of private resources devoted to health. In such cases, an extension of public services could give rise to a better outcome from the overall health investment.
Language: en
LA - en SN - 1661-8556 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00038-014-0574-6 ID - ref1 ER -