Abstract:

Health expenditures; It covers all expenditures for the protection, improvement, continuity and treatment of existing diseases. While health expenditure increases the health level of the society, it also speeds up the development with its contributions to human capital. In this study, the factors affecting health expenditures in 19 European Union countries and Turkey were examined using data from 1995-2018 period. In the study, health expenditure per capita, GDP per capita, population aged 65 and older, life expectancy at birth and carbon dioxide emission per capita were used as variables for the analyzes, Westerlund (2006) panel cointegration test was used. Accordingly, the impact of per capita income on health expenditures in 19 European Union countries and Turkey is statistically significant; however, co-integration coefficients of the population 65 years and older, carbon dioxide emission and life expectancy at birth were found to be statistically insignificant. The findings show that a 1% increase in per capita income in these 20 countries increases health expenditures per capita by about 0,11%. In addition, while the impact of each variable used in determining health expenditures in 20 countries varies from country to country, it was found that there is a long-term relationship between health expenditures and variables.

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