THE INFLUENCE OF SYSTEM FACTORS UPON THE MACROECONOMIC EFFICIENCY OF HEALTH-CARE - IMPLICATIONS FOR THE HEALTH POLICIES OF DEVELOPING AND DEVELOPED-COUNTRIES

This paper aims to clarify the global association of system factors wi th the attainment of health policy goals, through economic analyses of cross-country data. In the case of OECD (the Organization for Economi c Co-operation and Development) data for 1990, the variation in total expenditure on health among 24 countries can be explained by various f actors including Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Among these, the variab les representing the level of public sector involvement through social protection or public-private mix within a health care system, such as the Public-to-Total Expenditure Ratio, Coverage Rate and Public Cost Sharing, are significantly negative when factors such as GDP are contr olled. This suggests that countries attaining higher equity or accessi bility are in a better position to gain higher cost-containment or mac ro-economic-efficiency. The results of this study may be helpful for d eveloping countries searching for a long-term health care system as we ll as for developed countries facing health care system reforms.