Graduation Year

2017

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Economics

Reader 1

Sean Flynn

Reader 2

Nayana Bose

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

© 2017 Ruchika Majumdar

Abstract

This study focuses on the possible ways to improve healthcare services around the world, which increase the life expectancy for aging people. Utilizing a cost-effective analysis, the relationship between various healthcare expenditures and conditional life expectancy for people aged 60 and above was examined. A linear regression model was used to analyze data from 122 WHO (World Health Organization) countries obtained from the year 2000. The model included additional health-adjusted life years (HALE) at age 60 as the dependent variable and healthcare cost indicators as the independent variables. Regression results revealed that cost of healthcare was overall significant in contributing to HALE at age 60. The independent cost variables that were individually significant in the model consisted of government expenditure, private healthcare expenditure, out-of-pocket expenditure, and social security funding. While public healthcare costs such as government expenditure and social security funding positively impacted HALE, private healthcare expenditure negatively impacted HALE years at age 60. This finding suggests that countries with higher private healthcare expenditure than public healthcare expenditure decreased their chances of improving life expectancy for senior citizens. Through a cost-effective lens, in order to increase the quality and quantity of healthy life years for the elderly, countries should focus on instating policies that fund more public healthcare services.

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