International health care expenditure trends: 1987 (original) (raw)

Health spending in the United States continues to increase faster than in other major industrialized countries. Between 1986 and 1987, U.S. per capita health expenditures increased by 8.7 percent, compared to a purchasing power parity (PPP) adjusted average rate of increase of 5.6 percent in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom. In 1987, U.S. per capita spending on health was 2,051,doublethe2,051, double the 2,051,doublethe1,033 average for the other six countries. While the share of gross domestic product (GDP) devoted to health increased on average by 0.05 to 7.5 percent in the other six countries, the U.S. share increased by 0.3 to 11.2 percent. In other words, U.S. health spending, the largest in the world in both absolute and relative terms, continues to increase more rapidly than spending in other countries, and the gap continues to widen. This DataWatch updates trends in health spending, prices, and utilization in the twenty-four Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. First, we discuss the shares of health expenditures in GDP. Second, we describe the public shares of total health expenditures. Third, we present 1987 per capita health expenditures and analyze the relationship between health expenditures and GDP. Last, we compare U.S. trends in nominal and real expenditure growth and excess health care inflation to trends in other countries. The Share Of Health In GDP Exhibit 1 contains health-to-GDP ratios for the twenty-four OECD countries for 1960-1987. Because of individual countries' revisions in their health expenditure series, the historical figures for Finland,