Statistical comparison of OECD member countries healthcare efficiency based on chosen macroeconomics indicators

Abstract

The paper presents a statistical comparison of OECD member countries healthcare efficiency based on chosen macroeconomics indicators. Such comparison is perceived as problematic due to numerous economic specifications of the countries under comparison. These countries historically consume a significant proportion of their GDP to ensure public health of their citizens. All present-day healthcare systems are based on the prerequisite of future prosperity, sustainable wages and demographic growth. These systems are efficient in the times of industrial development where long-term employment with high wages is reached. However, all OECD countries have recently found themselves in the economic stagnation, real wage slump and the demographic decline. Dropping income into healthcare systems along with the growing expenditures create high deficits of public and private finances. Such changes have raised a question of which of the present-day healthcare systems is economically the most efficient and sustainable in the long run. To compare chosen economic parameters statistical testing of the significance of differences among healthcare systems with one-way analysis of variance (one factor ANOVA) is used. When conditions for its use are not fulfilled (especially the homogeneity of variance), which is tested by Hartley test, an adequate non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test is applied. The paper suggests a conclusion that no major statistical dependence of the chosen macroeconomic aspects of various healthcare systems in the OECD countries exists.