Proceedings of the 2nd Economics & Finance Conference, Vienna

IMPACT OF GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS ON HEALTHCARE EXPENDITURES IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

PAWEL BIALYNICKI-BIRULA

Abstract:

Current financial crisis, branded as global, has severely affected economies of developed countries. Revenue drops, high deficits and debt forced actions taken in many countries to seek savings and changes of socio-economic structures. This paper concerns the issue of consequences of the downturn for healthcare sector in developed countries. It aims at obtaining answers to questions concerning the course of adjustments with respect to financing health expenditures, and, in particular, scale and rate of their possible reduction in the situations of high-pressure from public finances. In order, the issues of trends in basic economic parameters at the time of crisis, and then the volumes and tendencies for respective categories of healthcare expenditures have been discussed. Determinants of creation of new health care policy instruments on international scale involving implementation of rescue (bailout) programs in countries affected by the crisis have been discussed.

Keywords: Financial crisis, Financing healthcare, Healthcare systems, Health policy ** The paper has been prepared as a part of research grant funded by the National Science Centre “The use of interactive methods of governance in shaping social policy” no UMO-2011/03/B/HS5/00899.

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