Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health

<Previous Article In Issue
Volume 3, Issue 1, March 2013, Pages 49 - 57

Polity and health care expenditures: The association among 159 nations

Authors
Leah E. Gregorio, David I. Gregorio*, gregorio@nso.uchc.edu
University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, CT 06030, USA
*Corresponding author. Address: University of Connecticut School of Medicine, 263 Farmington Avenue, Farmington, CT 06030, USA. Fax: +1 860 679 5463.
Corresponding Author
David I. Gregoriogregorio@nso.uchc.edu
Received 10 August 2012, Revised 19 December 2012, Accepted 26 December 2012, Available Online 4 February 2013.
DOI
10.1016/j.jegh.2012.12.007How to use a DOI?
Keywords
Comparative health systems; Health economics
Abstract

This paper hypothesized that democratic nations, as characterized by Polity IV Project regime scores, spend more on health care than autocratic nations and that the association reported here is independent of other demographic, health system or economic characteristics of nations. WHO Global Observatory data on 159 nations with roughly 98% of the world’s population were examined. Regime scores had significant, direct and independent associations with each of four measures of health care expenditure. For every unit increment in a nation’s regime score toward a more democratic authority structure of governance, we estimated significant (p < 0.05) increments in the percent of GDP expended on health care (+0.14%), percent of general government expenditures targeted to health care (+0.25%), total per capita expenditures on health (+34.4 Int$) and per capita general government expenditures (+22.4 Int$), while controlling for a population’s age distribution, life expectancy, health care workforce and system effectiveness and gross national income. Moreover, these relationships were found to persist across socio-economic development levels. The finding that practices of health care expenditure and authority structures of government co-vary is instructive about the politics of health and the challenges of advancing global health objectives.

Copyright
© 2013 Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Open Access
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Download article (PDF)
View full text (HTML)

<Previous Article In Issue
Journal
Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health
Volume-Issue
3 - 1
Pages
49 - 57
Publication Date
2013/02/04
ISSN (Online)
2210-6014
ISSN (Print)
2210-6006
DOI
10.1016/j.jegh.2012.12.007How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2013 Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Open Access
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Cite this article

risenwbib
TY  - JOUR
AU  - Leah E. Gregorio
AU  - David I. Gregorio
PY  - 2013
DA  - 2013/02/04
TI  - Polity and health care expenditures: The association among 159 nations
JO  - Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health
SP  - 49
EP  - 57
VL  - 3
IS  - 1
SN  - 2210-6014
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jegh.2012.12.007
DO  - 10.1016/j.jegh.2012.12.007
ID  - Gregorio2013
ER  -