Consumer health spending per capita, health care spending in the United States. UU. and usage trends in the 24 countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development are provided and analyzed in terms of price trends, population and volume intensity. The United States spends more on health than other countries, both in absolute terms (in dollars) and in relation to gross domestic product.
In addition, the gap seems to have increased in recent years. While international comparisons are difficult for a number of reasons described in the article, they can be useful in focusing efforts on understanding what the United States gets for spending half a trillion dollars on health services. Overall, healthcare costs are expected to increase as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lasting impact of policies enacted during the pandemic. Mechanically, this is done by the identity that 1 plus the annual percentage increase in health care prices equals 1 plus the annual percentage increase in general prices multiplied by 1 plus the annual percentage increase in health care prices that exceeds general prices.
Suppose that nominal health expenditures increased at a compound annual rate of 10 percent during the period considered, the population increased by 1 percent, and health care prices increased by 4 percent. Thus, for example, if salaried doctors in hospitals receive treatment as part of the budgets of the hospital sector, as is the case of the Federal Republic of Germany (hereinafter, Germany), the Scandinavian countries and the United Kingdom, the declared hospital expenses will include these in-hospital medical services. However, such information is not easily available for most countries in a standardized format and in sufficient detail to understand such interactions. When it comes to health care, the main concern of people in a country is the cost of providing and receiving it.
Transnational policy analyses should be based on rigorous analytical studies and detailed information on the underlying incentive structures of different health systems. Published data stimulates additional research and debate on health policies at the global, regional and national levels, in addition to improving the availability and quality of data. Although the proportion of GDP devoted to health care increased, on average, from 6.5 to 7.3 percent of GDP between 1975 and 1987, there has been some variability between countries. Although few rigorous policy evaluations have been conducted at the microeconomic level, there is a great deal of rhetoric about transferability between countries.
Table 1 contains the estimated proportions of total and public expenditure on health in the GDP of the OECD countries for 1975, 1980, 1985 and 1987. They also support the goal of universal health coverage (CSU) by helping to monitor the availability of resources for health. The Global Health Expenditure Database (GHED) provides comparable data on health spending in 192 countries over the past 20 years. Trends in health spending in all countries can also be analyzed by comparing health spending growth, health care prices, and changes in volume intensity within individual countries based on local currencies and prices. While the United States has the highest GDP per capita and health spending is directly related to GDP, U.
The upper graph on the right measures the total cost of health care (public and private spending) as a percentage of the GDP (gross domestic product) of some countries. .
