The Determinants of Health Care Expenditure in Egypt

Abstract

Health care sector is one of the most important sectors that affect the economies of all countries. On the one hand, it affects the productivity of labor force, on the other hand, it affects the spending of the households and the allocation of income among the various aspects of spending. In addition, the case of Egypt is characterized by some peculiarity in terms of The large population and the existence of a development gap between the cities of the north and the cities of the south, and the volume of out of pocket expenditure on health care which exceeds its counterpart in most countries of the world. In addition, health care service providers in Egypt are represented in the public sector, the private sector and the cooperative or community sector, where the three sectors provide health care services with different quality and prices. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the determinants of health care expenditure in Egypt through an econometric model. The results showed that spending on health care in Egypt was affected by percapita GDP and population over 65 years old while the econometric model shows no significance for variables such as hospital beds and number of medical doctors.