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The Electoral Politics and the Evolution of Complex Healthcare Systems
Author(s) -
Congleton Roger D.,
Batinti Alberto,
Pietratonio Rinaldo
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
kyklos
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.766
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1467-6435
pISSN - 0023-5962
DOI - 10.1111/kykl.12146
Subject(s) - west virginia , politics , history , schools of economic thought , economic history , political science , law , economics , archaeology , neoclassical economics
OECD countries have used a variety of mechanisms for subsidizing healthcare for more than a century. This paper suggests that the complexity of healthcare systems and reform tend to advance rational voter interests. It demonstrates that electoral models can explain why various combinations of healthcare programs have been adopted and why they are modified through time. The analytical and empirical results suggest that income, health risks, ideology, technology, and political institutions systematically affect the composition of national healthcare systems. Expenditures rise with income, technological advance, and leftward shifts in ideology, and fall somewhat with morbidity. The same variables affect composition of expenditures, although not uniformly.