THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POPULATION AGEING AND MEDICAL EXPENDITURES IN ROMANIA
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POPULATION AGEING AND MEDICAL EXPENDITURES IN ROMANIA

Summary/Abstract: With recent developments in the medical field and faster access to medical professional and healthcare services providers, accompanied by better education and a higher level of hygiene, life expectancy for both males and females in Romania is increasing at a steady pace. From a medical point of view, this is a remarkable accomplishment when compared with past decades when the average life expectancy was much lower than in recent times. A longer life span will automatically, for the most part, have the unwanted effect of increasing spending on medical services on behalf of the state to ensure a better quality of life for the elderly. Therefore, the public health system will be placed under additional pressure on behalf of healthcare providers to offer higher quality services to the elderly. This paper aims to explore the degree of influence that age and income have on the growing costs of medical expenditures on a per capita level. The method employed in exploring to what extent the growing share of elderly individuals and income can explain the rise in medical expenditures is a multiple linear regression model. The expected results are that as the share of elderly individuals grows within Romania’s population and similarly as income on a per capita bases rises, there will be a noticeable increase in per capita medical expenditures.

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