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Abstract
This paper is an empirical examination of the determinants of aggregate health care
expenditure. The paper presents a systematic analysis of relationships across 19 OECD
countries, showing the effects of aggregate income, institutional and socio-demographic
factors on health care expenditure. The results indicate that institutional factors
of the health systems, in addition to per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP), contribute
significantly to the explanation of the health care expenditure variation between
countries; for example the way physicians in outpatient care are paid, and the mixture
of public/private funding and inpatient/outpatient care.