Understanding the relationships between health spending, treatable mortality and economic productivity in OECD countries

• Published in: Frontiers in Public Health
• Main Authors: Viera Ivankova, Beata Gavurova, Samer Khouri
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
• Subjects: treatable mortality; respiratory diseases; health spending; GDP; health systems; OECD; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270; Iceland
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1036058; https://doaj.org/article/551576339a81457688f1ab12a0745be5

IntroductionPopulation health is one of the highest priorities for countries, which can translate into increased economic prosperity. This encourages research on health in an economic context.MethodsThe objective was to assess the relationships between health spending, treatable respiratory mortality, and gross domestic product (GDP) in countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The research was conducted with respect to health systems (tax-based, insurance-based) and gender differentiation of the productive population (aged 25–64 years). Descriptive analysis, regression analysis, and cluster analysis were used to achieve the main objective. The data covered the period from 1994 to 2016.ResultsThe results of the regression analysis revealed negative relationships between health spending and treatable respiratory mortality in countries with a tax-based health system for male and female working-age populations, as well as in countries with an insurance-based health system for male population. This means that higher health spending was associated with lower treatable respiratory mortality. Also, lower treatable mortality was associated with higher GDP, especially in the male productive population from countries with an insurance-based health system. In this study, countries with a tax-based health system were characterized by higher health spending, lower rates of treatable mortality from respiratory system diseases, and higher GDP compared to countries with an insurance-based health system. Males reported a higher mortality rate than females. Among the countries with a tax-based health system, the United Kingdom and Latvia showed less positive outcomes, while Italy and Iceland were the countries with the most positive outcomes. Among the countries with an insurance-based health system, Hungary and Slovakia reported poor outcomes, while France, Switzerland and Luxembourg were characterized by very positive outcomes. The United States showed a high mortality rate despite its high ...