Hamed Shabani; Reza Rezayatmand; Farzaneh Mohammadi
Abstract
Introduction: Ever rising of health expenditure all over the world has shifted policy makers’ attention toward the determinants of health expenditures. The purpose of this study was to investigate the determinants of health expenditures in Iran and the other member countries which are the members of ...
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Introduction: Ever rising of health expenditure all over the world has shifted policy makers’ attention toward the determinants of health expenditures. The purpose of this study was to investigate the determinants of health expenditures in Iran and the other member countries which are the members of Perspective Documents of 1404 (Hijri) of Iran.Methods: This was a descriptive-analytic study which investigated the impact of gross domestic product (GDP)/capita, urbanization rate, unemployment rate, the percentage of the population between 0 to 14 years old, the percentage of the population older than 65 years and above, population growth rate, number of hospital beds, and number of physicians on health expenditures using panel data from World Bank during 1995-2014 for Iran and other country members of the Perspective Document of 1404 of Iran.Results: GDP/capita, urbanization rate, and the percentage of the population older than 65 years and above had a positive impact on health expenditures. Unemployment rate, the percentage of the population between 0 and 14 years old and number of hospital beds had a negative impact on health expenditures.Conclusion: The results of this study showed that urbanization rate and the percentage of the population older than 65 had the greatest impact on rising health expenditures. These findings can be used by policy makers in the health sector to design a better future for the health of the population while containing the health expenditures.
