Abstract
Longevity can be perceived as increasing life expectancy in a population or as the long lifespan of an individual. Longer lifespans and decreasing fertility rates in many countries will cause societies to rapidly grow old. This paper is an attempt to define the determinants of the ‘out-of-pocket’ medical expenditures of the elderly. In this research statistical tests and micro-econometric modelling were carried out on a sample of the Polish population. The results of the analysis indicate that the elderly with their elevated needs for medical assistance spent more on the health care, than the rest of population (in the absolute value and in relation to income) and that their expenditures are constantly increasing. The main limitation to households’ health care expenditures is the income, which suggests that there may be an unrealized demand for medical services and products, especially medical drugs that cannot be obtained entirely free of charge. This highlights a new direction for the development of Poland’s health care policy; otherwise, longevity may be a luxury that not everyone can afford.
Highlights
Longevity can be defined as a long individual lifespan or as population aging
Children born in 2014 are expected to live on average (CIA 2014): – up to almost 90 years in Monaco, – slightly less than 85 years in Macau, Japan, and Singapore, – less than 76 years in Poland, – under 50 years in Guinea-Bissau, South Africa, and Chad. These projections show that, on the one hand, longevity is becoming a fact in most developed countries, while on the other hand, disparities in life expectancy are still considerable across the globe
This paper is an attempt to test three hypotheses: (1) the medical expenditures increase with longevity, (2) households of the elderly spend more on health than others, (3) determinants of private direct medical expenses differ between households of the elderly and the others
Summary
The latter is a resultant of various demographic tendencies, including: the former longevity – increasing life expectancy, as well as decreasing fertility These factors result in the growing share of elderly persons and the age median in the population. The populations of the most developed countries are ageing rapidly as the age median and the share of the elderly in the population continue to increase, which weighs heavily on labour markets, health care systems, public budgets, family structures, and social roles, as well as on many other social, economic, and cultural aspects on the micro and macro levels This entails the need for important changes in social policy. This paper is an attempt to test three hypotheses: (1) the medical expenditures increase with longevity, (2) households of the elderly spend more on health than others, (3) determinants of private direct medical expenses differ between households of the elderly and the others. High share of the out-of-pocket expenses in the Polish health care financing structure may serve as an indicator of the efficiency (in a broad sense) of the whole medical system and the health care policies
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