Can we Afford to Live Longer in Better Health? ENEPRI Research Reports No. 10, 1 July 2005
(2005) Can we Afford to Live Longer in Better Health? ENEPRI Research Reports No. 10, 1 July 2005.
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Abstract
This research report analyses the effects of ageing populations upon public finances. More specifically, it focuses on the implications of population ageing for acute health care, long-term care and public pension expenditures for 15 EU countries. It pays particular attention to three novel insights: i) a large proportion of health-care spending relates to time to mortality rather than to age; ii) life expectancy may increase much faster than current demographic projections suggest; and, iii) average health status may continue to improve in the future. It adopts a generational accounting model that incorporates health-care costs during the last years of life, decomposed into an acute health-care component and a long-term care component. The projections show that gains in life expectancy increase age-related expenditure, while improved health has the opposite effect. Combined, these trends reduce health-care costs and increase pension expenditures. Their joint effect upon public finances is rather modest, however. Hence, the assessment of public finances in most EU-15 countries does not change: even if a more rapid increase in life expectancy combines with an improvement in health, current fiscal and social security institutions will be unsustainable.
| Item Type: | Other |
|---|---|
| Remote Resource Image: |  |
| Public Domain: | No |
| Refereed: | No |
| Status: | Published |
| Authors, Individual: | Westerhout, Ed and Pellikaan, Frank. |
| Title: | Can we Afford to Live Longer in Better Health? ENEPRI Research Reports No. 10, 1 July 2005 |
| Language: | English |
| Institution: | The Centre for European Policy Studies |
| Journals and Series: | Series > Centre for European Policy Studies (Brussels) > ENEPRI Research Reports |
| Number: | 10 |
| Pages: | 47 |
| Month: | July |
| Year: | 2005 |
| Subjects: | EU policies and themes > Policies & related activities > social policy > welfare state EU policies and themes > Policies & related activities > public health policy |
| ID Code: | 9493 |
| Deposited By: | Wilkin, Phil |
| Deposited On: | 17 August 2009 |
