Healthcare benefits: luxury or necessity goods? EU countries case revisited
Healthcare benefits: luxury or necessity goods? EU countries case revisited

Author(s): Paulina Ucieklak-Jeż, Agnieszka Bem, Paweł Prędkiewicz, Rafal Siedlecki
Subject(s): Comparative politics, Health and medicine and law, EU-Accession / EU-DEvelopment
Published by: Masarykova univerzita nakladatelství
Keywords: healthcare services; healthy life years; income elasticity; demand; luxury good; necessity good;
Summary/Abstract: The aim of presented research is to analyse, whether healthcare services are luxury or necessity goods, taking into account several differences (income, healthcare’s financing system) between European countries. We have posed the following hypotheses: (H1): the character of healthcare services is affected by the level of national income; (H2): the character of healthcare services is affected by the model of healthcare financing. We have employed data coming from 28 European countries, covering the years 2004-2014. Data were obtained from Eurostat Database and OECD Health Data. Using the LS and WLS methods, we can conclude that: (1) in richer Europeans countries healthcare services are luxury goods; (2) in poorer European countries healthcare services are necessity goods; (3) in countries, where healthcare services are finance based on Beveridge system, healthcare benefits are necessity goods, while (4) in countries, where Bismarck system is employed – healthcare services are luxury goods. We have also found, that both in “poor countries” and “Beveridge countries” subgroup, the reduction of income inequalities, as well as the lowering of the ratio of people at risk of poverty, decrease the level of healthcare spending, while in the subgroup of “rich countries”, as well as in “Bismarck countries” this influence is entirely opposite.

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