• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.28 no.2 s.50
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• pp.347-363
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• 1995

The increase of health care expenditures is an important problem in the almost countries. Also, suppression of the health care expenditures is an important problem in the health field of Korea since the national health insurance for total people in 1989. Thus, it is very important to grasp the change of the health care expenditures of family and proportions of the health care expenditures to total expenditures of family, because they are the basis of national health care expenditures in Korea. While the health care expenditures of urban family were increased during 1980-1993 by 12.8% annually, the total expenditures of urban family were increased by 14.8% annually. Consequently, the proportions of health care expenditures to total expenditures were decreased from 5.98% to 4.76%. The proportions of health care expenditure for 3 years to come were predicted to 4.75% in 1994, 4.67% in 1995, and 4.63% in 1996 by the time-series analysis. That is, it was predicted that they would be decreasing slowly. The product elasticity of health care expenditure was less than 1 in the multiple regression analysis. so the health care is normal good rather than superior good. Therefore, it seems that the household economy is able to bear the expense pursuing the improvement of quality of health care by actualizing the medical insurance fee.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.99-116
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• 2004

This study estimates the determinants of national health expenditures of OECD countries using panel regression method. The data used are OECD Health Data(2003) covering 33 countries and from 1970 to 2001. This study shows several important different results compared to the previous studies. Further this study estimates the determinants of Korean case using data from 1m to 2000, and compare with the results of OECD panel. The main findings are as follows. The income elasticity of health expenditures is estimated below 1.0, but is shown above 1.0 when the different health systems of each country are controlled. The women's labor participation influences strongly positive effect on the health expenditures. The diffusion of new technologies is positively related with the increasing expense. The increasing government expenditures have a tendency not to contain health expenses, but to increase expenses. The expansion of public health insurance holders is containing the expenses, and the increasing number of doctors is pushing expenditures. This implies the health expenditures are influenced more by the induced demand of providers rather than the moral hazard of patients. However, the above result is opposite in Korean case. The existence of primary care doctors affects slightly up warding rather than containing expenditures. Finally the determinants are seriously depending upon which factors are included in the model and which statistical model is chosen. Therefore it must be cautious to interpret the results of statistical model.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.95-106
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• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between unmet healthcare needs due to financial reasons and catastrophic health expenditures. Methods: This study used secondary data from the 2014~2015 Korean Health Panel survey. The subjects of this study were 21,495 people aged 20 or older, and of them, there were 16,227 people aged 20 to 64 and 5,268 people aged 65 or older, which were surveyed between 2014 and 2015. The association between unmet healthcare needs due to financial reasons and catastrophic health expenditures was analyzed through logistic regression. Results: In 2015, 1.7% of people aged 20~64 years and 7.9% of those aged 65 or older experienced unmet healthcare needs due to financial reasons. In the 20~64 age group, people who repeatedly experienced catastrophic health expenditures (=10%,=20%) were less likely to experience unmet healthcare needs due to financial reasons than those who did not experience catastrophic health expenditures for two years (OR=0.50, OR=0.41). However, in the 65-or-older group, people who repeatedly experienced catastrophic health expenditures (=20%) were more likely to experience unmet healthcare needs due to financial reasons than those who did not experience catastrophic health expenditures for two years (OR=1.68). Conclusion: A greater percentage of the elderly repeatedly faced both catastrophic health expenditures and unmet healthcare needs due to financial reasons compared to the non-elderly.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.152-161
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• 2015

We analyze the determinants of obesity and the chronic diseases using the Korea Health Panel data. Also we analyze the effect of obesity and the chronic diseases on the health care expenditures. Through this study, to reduce the health care expenditures, we suggest the policy implication that might curb the obesity and the chronic diseases. We estimate the determinants of obesity, the chronic diseases, and the health care expenditures using 2SLS (two stage least squares) estimation method under the simultaneous equations framework. Result says that obesity and chronic diseases significantly have positive effects on the health care expenditures. Also the determinants of the health care expenditures that have positive effects are age, income and health care utilization variables.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.140-147
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• 2018

Objectives: Environmental pollution is a negative consequence of the development process, and many countries are grappling with this phenomenon. As a developing country, Iran is not exempt from this rule, and Iran pays huge expenditures for the consequences of pollution. The aim of this study was to analyze the long- and short-run impact of air pollution, along with other health indicators, on private and public health expenditures. Methods: This study was an applied and developmental study. Autoregressive distributed lag estimating models were used for the period of 1972 to 2014. In order to determine the co-integration between health expenditures and the infant mortality rate, fertility rate, per capita income, and pollution, we used the Wald test in Microfit version 4.1. We then used Eviews version 8 to evaluate the stationarity of the variables and to estimate the long- and short-run relationships. Results: Long-run air pollution had a positive and significant effect on health expenditures, so that a 1.00% increase in the index of carbon dioxide led to an increase of 3.32% and 1.16% in public and private health expenditures, respectively. Air pollution also had a greater impact on health expenditures in the long term than in the short term. Conclusions: The findings of this study indicate that among the factors affecting health expenditures, environmental quality and contaminants played the most important role. Therefore, in order to reduce the financial burden of health expenditures in Iran, it is essential to reduce air pollution by enacting and implementing laws that protect the environment.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.462-467
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• 2018

Background: This study was conducted to investigate the effects of work on medical expenditures by the elderly. Methods: Data pertaining to individuals aged 65 or older collected by the Korean Health Panel 2008-2013 were used. The effects of work on medical expenditures were analyzed in a panel tobit model adjusted for several variables of demographic factors, socioeconomic factors, and health factors for health care. Data were also analyzed based on age groups (65-74, $75{\leq}$), type of work (waged or self-employed), and working time (daytime work or night time work). Results: Among the elderly older than 65 years, 34-37% were workers. Work among the elderly reduced medical expenditures relative to nonworking elderly. Specifically, medical expenditures were lower in individuals older than 75 years, as well as among those who were self-employed insured and had medical aid insurance and those who exercised. However, medical expenditures were higher among females, married individuals, those with a higher household income, and those with a chronic disease. Elderly wageworkers showed reduced medical expenditures than nonworking elderly and elderly daytime workers did. Conclusion: The elderly population's work, especially wage work and daytime work, reduced medical expenditures relative to no work. These results provide valuable information for policymakers by indicating that work was associated with lower medical expenditures than no work. If elderly work is to be encouraged, it is necessary to provide a variety of high-quality wage work.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.1-14
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• 1997

The purpose of this study was to analyze the health expenditures of the elderly by examinning 1) the level of the health expenditures by socio-demographic characteristics, and 2) the factors influencing the health expenditures of the elderly. The data were collected by individual interview, consisting of a sample of 258 elders living in Chungbuk province. Of them, 244 elders were used for the analysis. The data were analyzed by frequency, percentage, mean, t-test, Anova, Tobit anlysis using SAS program. The results were as follows: there were significant differences in the health expenditures of the elderly by income, age, level of education, residential area, level of health condition, type of marriage, illness. The factors influencing the health expenditures of the elderly were income, residential area, and illness.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.31-41
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• 2015

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the use of health services and health expenditures between non-exercise and exercise groups of diabetic patients and among three groups divided according to exercise intensity. Methods: Data were obtained from the Korean Health Panel Survey of 2011. The participants of this study were 864 diabetic patients who did exercise (walk, moderate exercise, or vigorous exercise) or not. Data were subsequently analyzed using the SPSS 21 Program. Results: The exercise group showed higher percentages of medication compliance, non-smokers, and regular diet than the non-exercise group. The hospitalization percentage, the number of outpatient hospital visits, and health expenditures were higher in the non-exercise group than in the exercise group. There was no difference among the three groups divided according to exercise intensity in the use of health services and health expenditures. Conclusion: These results show that exercise is a way to reduce diabetic patients' use of health services and their health expenditures.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.390-398
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• 2016

Background: This study aims to analyze the impact of levels of health care coverage on the trajectory of self-rated health, comparing the near-poor which tends to be excluded in traditional health care systems with the upper middle class. Methods: The study participants were 3,687 people who sincerely responded questions regarding health care expenditures, unmet medical needs, and self-rated health in the Korea Health Panel data in 2009-2012. Results: The higher health care expenditures and the presence of unmet medical needs were significantly associated with the lower level of self-rated health. However, both factors did not significantly predict the steeper decline in the self-rated health. The results from multiple group analyses showed that health care expenditures and unmet medical needs had greater impact on the near-poor compared to their higher income counterparts. Conclusion: Public health care coverages need to be enhanced as well as reducing health care expenditures and unmet medical needs.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.237-248
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• 2013

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to examine and explain the extent of income-related inequity in health care utilization and expenditures to compare the extent in 2005 and 2010 in Korea. Methods: We employed the concentration indices and the horizontal inequity index proposed by Wagstaff and van Doorslaer based on one- and two-part models. This study was conducted using data from the 2005 and 2010 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. We examined health care utilization and expenditures for different types of health care providers, including health centers, physician clinics, hospitals, general hospitals, dental care, and licensed traditional medical practitioners. Results: The results show the equitable distribution of overall health care utilization with pro-poor tendencies and modest pro-rich inequity in the amount of medical expenditures in 2010. For the decomposition analysis, non-need variables such as income, education, private insurance, and occupational status have contributed considerably to pro-rich inequality in health care over the period between 2005 and 2010. Conclusions: We found that health care utilization in Korea in 2010 was fairly equitable, but the poor still have some barriers to accessing primary care and continuing to receive medical care.