THE INFLUENCE OF SYSTEM FACTORS UPON THE MACROECONOMIC EFFICIENCY OF HEALTH-CARE - IMPLICATIONS FOR THE HEALTH POLICIES OF DEVELOPING AND DEVELOPED-COUNTRIES
Hs. Jeong et A. Gunji, THE INFLUENCE OF SYSTEM FACTORS UPON THE MACROECONOMIC EFFICIENCY OF HEALTH-CARE - IMPLICATIONS FOR THE HEALTH POLICIES OF DEVELOPING AND DEVELOPED-COUNTRIES, Health policy, 27(2), 1994, pp. 113-140
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.