Economic Evaluation of Health Programs – Health Expenditures in the European Union

Abstract

AbstractHealth Care is a sensitive issue that concerns not only the individual but also society in general. Health economics are a specialization of the economists in the health sector who aim for the proper function of hospital administration. It deals with issues related to the financing and delivery of health services and the role of such services and other personal decisions in contributing to personal health. Many researches refer to the problems that each health unit faces, emphasizing on the resources, programs and health expenditure. Some of these programs, especially the most effective, are mentioned in this research. Their creation was based on the best quality of health services in all OECD countries.With this research, we aim to develop a methodological framework for evaluating the total health expenditure (consists of all expenditures or outlays for medical care, prevention, promotion, rehabilitation, community health activities, health administration and regulation and capital formation with the predominant objective of improving health) in the 23 OECD countries, by creating a panel data regression and analyzing the results, from 2000 to 2014. For this reason, some of the most important variables (macroeconomic and related to the health sector), were used as tools to assess the performance of each country, as far as the resources and the expenditure for the health care are concerned. Every explanatory variable that was used in this sample, but also the combination of a number of these explanatory variables showed a positive correlation with total expenditures as a percentage of GDP in the majority of the equations. Some variables showed a negative correlation with total health expenditures, which doesn’t fit with the economic theory. Financial crisis is the reason for this.