Abstract:

Drug expenditure plays an important role in health expenditure. Developing countries spend 20 percent of their health expenditure on medication, which is about 30 percent in developing countries. In this context, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship between health expenditure and drug expenditure in terms of OECD countries. In addition, an estimate of the relationship between the number of medical and nursing graduates to 100,000 in a year and the drug expenditure is one of the objectives of the research. The secondary data is used in the study and the source of data is the OECD database. The study included 27 countries with current data available for the purpose of research. According to the research results, there was a statistically meaningful, positive and strong relationship between health expenditure per person and medication expenditure per person (p<0,01,r=,789). On the other hand, a statistically meaningful relationship between the medical and nursing graduates per person and 100,000 per person was not established (p>0,05). 62% of the change in medication expenditure is explained by the change in health expenditure per person. Turkey is below the average of OECD countries in terms of health and medicine spending. When statistically meaningful relationships between health expenditure and drug expenditure are assessed, it can be stated that Turkey should at least reach the OECD average in both types of expenditure.

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