Czech Republic vs. EU-27: Economic level, health care and population health

Abstract

This paper focuses on the improvement of the health characteristics in European countries including the life expectancy of their inhabitants. The primary objective is to describe, compare and analyze the status and development in the Czech Republic and other countries of the European Union in terms of the key health care indicators and population health status in relation to the economy related indicators the authors have chosen. The secondary objective is to verify the hypothesis which states that the health status of the population represented by the indicator of life expectancy is closely related to the economic level of individual countries as well as to the amount of total expenditure on health care. Based on the results of the analysis we can conclude that the Czech Republic balances on the border of the group of countries with average values of indicators and the group with poorer values. The results also suggest relatively strong ties between the economic level and health status of the population represented by life expectancy.