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Health care financing, efficiency, and equity / Sherry A. Glied

Author
Glied, Sherry
Published
Cambridge, Mass. : National Bureau of Economic Research, [2008]
Copyright Date
©2008
Physical Description
32 pages, 2 unnumbered pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.
Additional Creators
National Bureau of Economic Research
Online Version

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Summary
This paper examines the efficiency and equity implications of alternative health care system financing strategies. Using data across the OECD, I find that almost all financing choices are compatible with efficiency in the delivery of health care, and that there has been no consistent and systematic relationship between financing and cost containment. Using data on expenditures and life expectancy by income quintile from the Canadian health care system, I find that universal, publicly-funded health insurance is modestly redistributive. Putting $1 of tax funds into the public health insurance system effectively channels between $0.23 and $0.26 toward the lowest income quintile people, and about $0.50 to the bottom two income quintiles. Finally, a review of the literature across the OECD suggests that the progressivity of financing of the health insurance system has limited implications for overall income inequality, particularly over time.
Subject(s)
Note
"March 2008."
Bibliography Note
Includes bibliographical references (page 24).
Other Forms
Also available in PDF from the NBER World Wide Web site (www.nber.org).
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