Health insurance-a review of key elements and economic justification

Abstract

Begun in 2015, health insurance in Republic of Kazakhstan has become mandatory which led to particular changes in the health care system as a whole. This study aims to determine the positive impact of health insurance implementation to the public health economy. Specifically, it investigates if the level of health care resources allocation and spending for maximizing health benefits is effective. In this context, the relationship between life expectancy as a main indicator of health insurance system and other important factors was estimated. In the study, the relationship was evaluated through regression analysis in combination with qualitative examination of related factors that affect to health insurance system. For the analysis, the dataset consists of 50 randomly chosen, developed and developing countries that provides the data for one dependent variable – life expectancy; and four dependent variables: total per capita health care expenditures, GDP per capita, percentage of domestic government health expenditures and density of health care professionals per 1000 people. The data was analyzed using R software. The results showed the positive correlation between health care expenditures and life expectancy. Moreover, the significance of rest variables also was identified. These findings suggest to not focus only on expenditures, but also on factors that directly affect to the health care quality. On this basis, new regulations in the public health care sector should be taken into account in order to provide better health insurance system as well as higher life expectancy