Spatial and dynamic analysis of health care expenditures in OECD countries

Abstract

Health care is a key sector of every economy and is of grate medical, so- cial, and economical importance to all citizens. It is also one of the most diverse sectors in the world, especially in the aspect of financing. Some countries offer “free” care, covered by the national budget, while others have implemented various forms of privet financing, like privet healthcare insurances. In Poland most medical services are funded by the State and ideas of privatisation are in progress. Despite that it has been estimated that 30% of overall healthcare expenditures are covered by households. This rate is among the highest in Europe, which suggests low efficiency of health care sector. Analysis of magnitude and structure of health care expenditures according to financing sources can give essential data for sector’s efficiency evaluation. The main goal of this paper is to carry a spatiotemporal analysis of healthcare expenditures and their structure in OECD countries in years 2000-2007. Spatial differentiation of expenditures according to their sources and their dynamic of changes will be researched in chosen countries, including Poland. Three dimensional (time–space structure) analysis will be performed using panel shift-share analysis based on Berzeg model