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How did well being care costs change over the previous 2 a long time. That’s the query a paper by Papanicolas (2024) goals to reply, evaluating US costs to these from Australia, Canada, France, and the Netherlands between 2000 and 2020.
Earlier than we get to the outcomes, we first want to find out what kinds of worth indices are on the market? The authors cite three major varieties:
- Financial system broad worth indices: Examples embrace a GDP worth index
- Value indices overlaying all items and providers consumed by households: Examples embrace the precise particular person consumption (AIC) worth index
- Nationwide well being deflators. These are health-specific costs indices and are produced by a wide range of authorities entities (e.g., within the US Heart for Medicare and Medicaid Companies (CMS), the Bureau of Financial Evaluation (BEA) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) all produce nationwide well being deflators)
The authors argue that economy-wide and AIC deflators do a poor job for capturing adjustments in well being care costs.
Though they’re extensively used to deflate well being expenditures for worldwide comparisons, the GDP and AIC worth indices seize adjustments in costs total—not adjustments in healthcare-specific costs. Provided that well being care is commonly supplied by non-market producers equivalent to governments (the place costs could also be imperfect indicators of market worth), healthcare costs are prone to differ markedly from economy-wide or AIC costs
The info sources the authors used are listed beneath:
| Nation | Title of Index | Producer |
| Australia | Complete Well being Value Index (THPI) | Australian Institute for Well being and Welfare (AIHW) |
| Canada | Complete Well being Care Implicit Value Index | Statistics Canada |
| France | Value Index for Well being | Route de la recherche, des études de l’évaluation et des statistiques (DRESS) |
| The Netherlands | Value Index for Well being | Statistics Netherlands (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, CBS) |
| U.S. | Private Well being Care Value Index | Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies (CMS) |
Outcomes:
The well being care spending development charge was highest in Australia (5.7%) and the U.S. (4.9%) and lowest for France (2.7%). Nonetheless, whereas a bigger share off the elevated spending was attributable to worth will increase in U.S. (55% of spending development), this determine was an enormous decrease for different nations (48%). Additional:
By wanting on the ratio of the consumption-based health-specific index to the consumption-based basic worth index (AIC) over the examine interval, we discover that the US exhibits the best relative cumulative “extra” development in well being costs over the examine interval (14%), adopted by Canada (12%). Australia and the Netherlands additionally exhibit increased cumulative well being worth development over the examine interval in comparison with basic worth development, though barely decrease (7%–6%) than the primary cluster of nations. Lastly, France exhibits the bottom cumulative worth development, with well being costs rising solely barely above basic costs (2%).
Within the Determine beneath, spending development is decomposed into costs and quantity, the place Panel A appears at consumption deflators for public payers and panel B appears at consumption deflators for personal payers. One can clearly see that worth development was sooner for well being care bought by public payers in comparison with these bought by households (i.e., out-of-pocket prices or personal insurance coverage).
The complete paper will be learn right here.
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