Social Differences, Life Expectancy And Health Expenditures Over The Life Course
Thomas Leoni, Martin Spielauer, Peter Reschenhofer
This study examines the social differences in the use of the health care system by analyzing the health care costs of different educational groups over the course of a lifetime. In a first step, average age cost profiles are determined for men and women after the highest level of education. In a second step, the health care costs of individual cohorts and overall are estimated in a dynamic microsimulation, taking into account changes in life expectancy and the composition of the Austrian population by age and education. The results confirm that higher education in most stages of life is on average associated with better health and lower health care costs. However, due to the positive correlation between education and life expectancy, higher education also has an opposite cost effect. The overall effect shows partly different patterns for men and women. Overall, the improvement of the educational structure in the population has had a moderately dampening effect on the cost dynamics in the health care system, which partly offset the rising costs resulting from higher life expectancy.
- Organization Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO)
- Funding: This contribution was funded by the Main Association of Austrian Social Insurance Institutions.
- Language: German
- Original title: Soziale Unterschiede, Lebenserwartung und Gesundheitsausgaben im Lebensverlauf
- German Abstract: Diese Studie untersucht die sozialen Unterschiede in der Inanspruchnahme des Gesundheitssystems anhand einer Analyse der Gesundheitskosten unterschiedlicher Bildungsgruppen im Lebensverlauf. Dazu werden in einem ersten Schritt durchschnittliche Alterskostenprofile für Männer und Frauen nach höchster abgeschlossener Bildung ermittelt. In einem zweiten Schritt werden in einer dynamischen Mikrosimulation unter Berücksichtigung von Änderungen der Lebenserwartung und der Zusammensetzung der österreichischen Bevölkerung nach Alter und Bildung die Gesundheitskosten einzelner Kohorten und insgesamt geschätzt. Die Ergebnisse bestätigen, dass höhere Bildung in den meisten Lebensabschnitten im Durchschnitt mit besserer Gesundheit und niedrigeren Gesundheitskosten einhergeht. Durch den positiven Zusammenhang zwischen Bildung und Lebenserwartung hat höhere Bildung aber auch einen gegenteiligen Kosteneffekt. Der Gesamteffekt weist für Männer und Frauen teils unterschiedliche Muster auf. Insgesamt hat die Verbesserung der Bildungsstruktur in der Bevölkerung einen moderat dämpfenden Effekt auf die Kostendynamik im Gesundheitssystem, der einen Teil der steigenden Kosten infolge der höheren Lebenserwartung kompensiert.
Social Differences, Life Expectancy And Health Expenditures Over The Life Course¶
Thomas Leoni, Martin Spielauer, Peter Reschenhofer
This study examines the social differences in the use of the health care system by analyzing the health care costs of different educational groups over the course of a lifetime. In a first step, average age cost profiles are determined for men and women after the highest level of education. In a second step, the health care costs of individual cohorts and overall are estimated in a dynamic microsimulation, taking into account changes in life expectancy and the composition of the Austrian population by age and education. The results confirm that higher education in most stages of life is on average associated with better health and lower health care costs. However, due to the positive correlation between education and life expectancy, higher education also has an opposite cost effect. The overall effect shows partly different patterns for men and women. Overall, the improvement of the educational structure in the population has had a moderately dampening effect on the cost dynamics in the health care system, which partly offset the rising costs resulting from higher life expectancy.