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An income‐weighted international average for comparative analysis of health expenditures
Author(s) -
Getzen Thomas E.,
Poullier JeanPierre
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
the international journal of health planning and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.672
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1099-1751
pISSN - 0749-6753
DOI - 10.1002/hpm.4740060103
Subject(s) - economics , health spending , per capita , demographic economics , danish , health care , economic growth , medicine , environmental health , population , health insurance , linguistics , philosophy
Data from 17 countries across 28 years are used to estimate an international health expenditure function based on real per capita GNP. Actual and expected spending levels are compared for 24 countries. Between 1960 and 1987, it has been rare for health expenditure in any country to be more than ± 20 per cent from the projected value. The norm is for spending to rise at 1.5 times the growth rate of GDP. Two countries appear to display significant anomalies. Spending in the United Kingdom is consistently 15–25 per cent below normal for all years, and Danish expenditure has declined from 7 to 6 per cent of GDP since 1975.