Everybody admits that ageing increases health expenditures. However the dynamics of this growth, and the factors that contribute it, are less known. In our recent article, we explain why morbidity is the main factor that explains growth of health expenditures in ageing. In our analysis, closeness to death is not the main cause.
Regardless of the specific group of healthcare services, HCE at the end of life depends mainly on the individual health status. Proximity to death, sex, and marginally age approximate individual morbidity when it is excluded from the model. The inclusion of morbidity generally improves the goodness of fit. These results provide implications for the analysis of ageing population and its impact on HCE that should be taken into account.We do need further research on the cost and intensity of care in the last months of life, and this is our next challenge.
