In this paper, we use unique health record data that cover outpatient care and the associated costs to quantify the health care costs of a sizable increase in the retirement age in Germany. For the identification, we exploit a sizable cohort-specific pension reform which abolished an early...

This study examines if health care costs in the United States are affected by Baumol's cost disease. It relies on an empirical test proposed by Hartwig (2008) and extended by Colombier (2010) and uses a panel data set of 50 states over the 1980–2009 period. The results suggest that health care...

There are few studies investigating the consequences of osteoporotic (low bone density) fractures in terms of costs and health outcomes. The purpose of this Swedish pilot study is to assess the costs and quality of life related to fractures of the hip, spine, wrist and shoulder and further to...

Background: Financial incentives and institutions play a key role in determining health care expenditures. The health care sector in Europe is mostly publicly funded and financed in contrast to other OECD-countries. The financing is through taxes and service provision by public hospitals and...

Health financing reforms have recently received much attention in developing countries. However, out-of-pocket payments remain substantial. When such payments involve expenditures above some given proportion of household resources, they are often deemed ‘catastrophic’. The research...

Major transformations in forms of governance of the liberal state have been wrought over the course of the last century, including the rise of neoliberalism and 'new public management'. Mental health too has witnessed change, with pharmacological treatment displacing residential care, a shift to...

Background: Smoking causes higher incidence of certain diseases and greater severity of most health conditions. Smokers and recent quitters have higher health care utilization than never smokers and long-term quitters; as a result, smoking causes an increase in health care costs. This raises the...