Analysis of the K-Factors of the Spanish Health Care Expenditure in the OECD Context

Résumé du livre

The paper analyses the commonly argued gap between the Spanish health care expenditure and that of most of the developed countries. Our results do no find this gap for total health expenditure, once we adjust our estimation for some key factors in explaining health spending. But for public health expenditure on a per capita basis we do find a gap between 6 and 12%, well below the results of comparing simple average ratios between Spain and our OECD sample. Comparing again actual versus predicted figures, now for pharmaceutical expenditure, we find an over-consumption of drugs of around 5%. At any rate we conclude that the level of health spending, and social expenditure in general, is the result basically of a political choice. Econometric analysis may help to improve information for decision-making but finally the decision on how much to spend in health care reflects the social values of the community.