Studies on the effect of ageing on health care expenditures (HCE) have revealed the importance of controlling for time-to-death (TTD). These studies, however, are subject to possible endogeneity if HCE influences remaining life expectancy. This paper introduces a ten year observational period on...

This paper contributes to the analysis of policy measures that attempt to reduce health care expenditures of insurers. We examine the impact of a cash bonus program for preventive health behavior of a German health insurer on prevention effort and health care expenditures using a unique...

A project aimed at presenting initial results from the implementation of the System of Health Accounts has been carried by the Health Policy Unit at the OECD and experts from thirteen member countries. The results are presented in the form of a comparative study (OECD Health Working Papers No....

In the policy debate, there are regular demands to further increase the retirement age to address the financial challenges for the pension system. However, a prolonged working life impacts a person’s health. Detailed data from the statutory health insurance companies shows that abolishing the...

Background Previous literature documents the direct and indirect economic costs of obesity, yet none has attempted to quantify the intangible costs of obesity. This study focuses on quantifying the intangible costs of one unit body mass index (BMI) increase and being overweight and obese in...

This paper projects the health expenditures in the social health insurance (SHI) in Germany until 2050. The long-term expenditure volume of the SHI is analyzed by OLS, vector autoregression (VAR) and vector error correction models (VECM). The SHI-expenditures are driven in particular by...

Germany’s healthcare system is praised as one of the best in the world. In this article, we review Germany’s health system by critically analysing its structure, funding, resource allocation, provider payments, efficiency, health outcomes, and access. Whilst health provision and access are...