Gender and health outcomes: The impact of healthcare systems and their financing on life expectancies of women and men

Abstract

The paper considers the impact of healthcare systems and how they are financed on the life expectancies (LEs) of women and men in 19 OECD countries during the period 1990-2005 using OECD Health Data 2009. There is a gap in life expectancy (LE) between men and women, with women living longer than men, and most studies point to socio-economic variables and lifestyle and health-related behaviors. The role of healthcare systems and access to medical services is still disputed. This article proposes a number of adjustments to previous studies. First, it uses several variables broken down according to gender. Second, it considers healthcare systems by measuring their national expenditure as well as their public and private sources of funding. Third, it includes factors indirectly affecting health as expenditures on other realms of social policy. Fourth, it examines the factors impacting LEs of women and men at birth and at 65. Using a hierarchical model of panel-data regressions, the study finds: (1) there is a marginal impact on LEs at birth for both genders and greater impact on LEs at 65 for both genders; (2) a public mode of funding has greater effect than private; (3) the findings that men benefit more from access to medical services might be the result of the variables controlled in the analysis.