Patterns of public Health Expenditure and health care financing in modern Greece : 1833-1911
Part of : Αρχείον οικονομικής ιστορίας ; Vol.XXI, No.1, 2009, pages 45-72
Issue:
Pages:
45-72
Abstract:
Published data and statistical series regarding health expenditure in Greece are considered rather unreliable, as they haven’t been collected on the basis of a consistent methodology over time, while successive governments never adopted a systematic approach in defining and classifying the magnitude. The main objectives of this paper are to construct, for the first time, a series of public health expenditure for Modern Greece for the period 1833-1911, to disaggregate this total into its main components and to present and discuss the patterns of change of these magnitudes and to make relevant comparisons with the changes of other available macroeconomic magnitudes for the same period unveiling their relationships.Our conclusions show that, during the period, Public Health Expenditure (in 1914 constant prices) exhibit overall a very small increasing tendency, its growth rate being considered satisfactory only during the sub-period 1846-1858. Both, as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product and Total Public Expenditure, Public Health Expenditure show a marked decline during the period in question. The data suggest that the health policy’s objectives in Greece throughout the period 1833-1911, were encompassed in overall government policy, but that implementation was seriously constrained by limited funding and inadequacies in organization.
Subject:
Subject (LC):
Keywords:
Public Health Expenditure, Health Care Financing, Health Policy, 19th century Greece
Notes:
JEL classification: H51, I10, I11, I18, I19, N33, Appendix with tables
