scholarly journals Health care and long-term care costs by age and proximity to death in a publicly funded universal system: A descriptive study of population data

Author(s):  
Jorid Kalseth ◽  
Kjartan Sarheim Anthun ◽  
Leena Forma

Trends in population ageing parallel concerns with escalating health care expenditures. The purposes of this study are to (1) estimate the distribution of health care and long-term care costs to ascertain the relative importance of age vs. proximity to death as the main driver of costs; (2) explore the relative importance of user rates and costs per user as the primary driver of per capita costs of selected services for survivors and decedents, respectively; and (3) provide projections of future costs. We use data on service use for the entire Norwegian population from four national registers linked with the Cause of Death Registry to calculate costs per decedent in the last 365 days of life and the average one-year costs of people surviving at least two years. Future costs were calculated using projections on population and probability of death from Statistics Norway. We find that the substantial increase in costs at older ages among both decedents and survivors relates to higher long-term care costs. Health care costs peak in the late 50s among decedents and in the early 80s among survivors and then decrease with age. While costs in the last year of life for each decedent are 19 times the average costs of survivors, the decedent/survivor cost ratio decreases with age to less than double among those aged ³95 years. Expenditure projections indicate an increase in spending due to population ageing, especially in long-term care expenditures. For somatic hospital costs, proximity to death has a greater impact on costs than age; the age effect is more important for long-term care, implying that the “red herring” effect is larger for acute health care than for long-term care. Adjusting for costs during the last year of life reduces the projected increase in expenditures, but only to a limited extent.

2008 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
UNTO HÄKKINEN ◽  
PEKKA MARTIKAINEN ◽  
ANJA NORO ◽  
ELINA NIHTILÄ ◽  
MIKKO PELTOLA

AbstractThis study revisits the debate on the ‘red herring’, i.e. the claim that population aging will not have a significant impact on health care expenditure (HCE), using a Finnish data set. We decompose HCE into several components and include both survivors and deceased individuals into the analyses. We also compare the predictions of health expenditure based on a model that takes into account the proximity to death with the predictions of a naïve model, which includes only age and gender and their interactions. We extend our analysis to include income as an explanatory variable. According to our results, total expenditure on health care and care of elderly people increases with age but the relationship is not as clear as is usually assumed when a naïve model is used in health expenditure projections. Among individuals not in long-term care, we found a clear positive relationship between expenditure and age only for health centre and psychiatric inpatient care. In somatic care and prescribed drugs, the expenditure clearly decreased with age among deceased individuals. Our results emphasize that even in the future, health care expenditure might be driven more by changes in the propensity to move into long-term care and medical technology than age and gender alone, as often claimed in public discussion. We do not find any strong positive associations between income and expenditure for most non-LTC categories of health care utilization. Income was positively related to expenditure on prescribed medicines, in which cost-sharing between the state and the individual is relatively high. Overall, our results indicate that the future expenditure is more likely to be determined by health policy actions than inevitable trends in the demographic composition of the population.


2021 ◽  
pp. 097206342199499
Author(s):  
Sangay Thinley

Population ageing is both an achievement and challenge, an achievement as longevity is the result of successful prevention and control of diseases, decreasing fertility rates and overall socio-economic development. It is at the same time a challenge as the increasing number of older people and the resultant demographic shift are accompanied by the need to adjust and scale up the social and health care systems. The challenges are of particular relevance to the developing world where the demographic shift is occurring much faster. Comprehensive efforts based on country contexts are required in the following areas: (a) older persons and development, (b) health and well-being and (c) enabling and supportive environments to address population ageing needs. This article, however, focuses only on three most crucial issues, that is, livelihood, health care systems and care of the older dependent people. Measures to sustain the livelihood of older people, to align the health systems to provide care and to develop long-term care systems are highlighted. Person-centred care, integration and functional capacity are advocated. Further, ageing in place or living in one’s own home, community or a place with the closest fit with the person’s needs and preferences is considered very important for healthy ageing. In terms of enhancing livelihood, major policy changes and reforms to improve the social security systems and expanding coverage as well as increasing the amounts to minimum subsistence levels are highlighted. Another area which needs to be strengthened is the tradition of existing family support systems. The health systems alignment required are reflected for each health system building block, and focuses mainly on (a) developing and ensuring access to services that provide older-person-centred care; (b) shifting the clinical focus from disease to intrinsic capacity; and (c) developing or reorienting the health workforce to provide care as per alignment. Long-term care systems would best meet the needs of dependent older people if families, communities, civil society organisations and private sector are equally involved while governments play leadership roles in setting up and monitoring quality.


2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erja Mustonen ◽  
Iiris Hörhammer ◽  
Pilvikki Absetz ◽  
Kristiina Patja ◽  
Johanna Lammintakanen ◽  
...  

Neurology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 97 (15) ◽  
pp. e1503-e1511
Author(s):  
Amy Y.X. Yu ◽  
Eric E. Smith ◽  
Murray Krahn ◽  
Peter C. Austin ◽  
Mohammed Rashid ◽  
...  

Background and ObjectivesTo determine the association between material deprivation and direct health care costs and clinical outcomes following stroke in the context of a publicly funded universal health care system.MethodsIn this population-based cohort study of patients with ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke admitted to the hospital between 2008 and 2017 in Ontario, Canada, we used linked administrative data to identify the cohort, predictor variables, and outcomes. The exposure was a 5-level neighborhood material deprivation index. The primary outcome was direct health care costs incurred by the public payer in the first year. Secondary outcomes were death and admission to long-term care.ResultsAmong 90,289 patients with stroke, the mean (SD) per-person costs increased with increasing material deprivation, from $50,602 ($55,582) in the least deprived quintile to $56,292 ($59,721) in the most deprived quintile (unadjusted relative cost ratio and 95% confidence interval 1.11 [1.08, 1.13] and adjusted relative cost ratio 1.07 [1.05, 1.10] for least compared to most deprived quintile). People in the most deprived quintile had higher mortality within 1 year compared to the least deprived quintile (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 1.07 [1.03, 1.12]) as well as within 3 years (adjusted HR 1.09 [1.05, 1.13]). Admission to long-term care increased incrementally with material deprivation and those in the most deprived quintile had an adjusted HR of 1.33 (1.24, 1.43) compared to those in the least deprived quintile.DiscussionMaterial deprivation is a risk factor for increased costs and poor outcomes after stroke. Interventions targeting health inequities due to social determinants of health are needed.Classification of EvidenceThis study provides Class II evidence that the neighborhood-level material deprivation predicts direct health care costs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Harminder Guliani ◽  
Thomas Hadjistavropoulos ◽  
Shan Jin ◽  
Lisa M. Lix

Abstract Background We tested for differences in direct health care costs among long-term care (LTC) residents age 65 and older with clinically significant pain (CSP) and with no pain or non-daily mild pain (NP/NDMP). We are not aware of any other large scale investigation that examined the cost of pain in LTC environments. Methods Population-based administrative health data from Saskatchewan, Canada for 2004 to 2015 were used to compare direct health care costs for CSP and NP/NDMP groups up to one year after admission to LTC. Total accumulated costs for hospitalization, physician services, LTC, and prescription drugs were calculated in 2015 Canadian dollars. Group differences were tested using generalized linear models with generalized estimating equations. Results Amongst 24,870 LTC residents, 8289 (33.3%) were censored due to death or discharge in the 365-day study observation period. Of the 16,581 (66.7%) observed residents, 5683 (34.3%) had CSP at admission. Residents (66.3% female) had a mean age of 85 years (SD = 7.4). The mean annual total direct health care cost per resident was higher among the CSP group (CAD $8063) than the NP/NDMP group (CAD $6455). This difference was found even after including LTC costs, and for each cost component (i.e., CSP residents had higher hospitalization, physician, and prescription drug costs). Similar results were obtained after controlling for demographics, comorbidities, physical and cognitive impairment, prior health care costs, and facility characteristics. Conclusion The higher costs incurred by CSP residents compared to NP/NDMP residents are likely underestimated because pain problems are often missed in residents with dementia, who comprise a large portion of the LTC population. Improved pain care can reduce such costs and improve quality of life.


Author(s):  
Tom Stooker ◽  
Joost W. van Acht ◽  
Erik M. van Barneveld ◽  
René C.J.A. van Vliet ◽  
Ben A. van Hout ◽  
...  

The costs of health care in the last year of life are a subject of debate and myth. Expensive interventions at the end of life often are blamed for the rapid increase in health care spending, but evidence about the existence of such exceptionally high expenditures at the end of life is rare and faulty. This investigation examines the development and composition of health care costs at the end of life for all age groups in The Netherlands. In contrast with earlier studies, this research analyzes both acute care (cure) and long-term care (care) costs. As an alternative for the frequently used concept of calendar years, we employed the concept of life years for calculating the costs at the end of life. We found that when life approaches its end, health care expenditures indeed rise sharply, especially in the last months. However, when we compared total cure costs in the last year of life to the total cure costs for the entire population, we concluded that the end-of-life share was only about 10%. Results of this study show that interventions to reduce costs in the last year of life will have only a modest impact compared to the total health care budget.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 704-704
Author(s):  
Yuchi Young ◽  
Barbara Resnick

Abstract The world population is aging. The proportion of the population over 60 will nearly double from 12% in 2015 to 22% in 2050. Global life expectancy has more than doubled from 31 years in 1900 to 72.6 years in 2019. The need for long-term care (LTC) services is expanding with the same rapidity. A comprehensive response is needed to address the needs of older adults. Learning from health systems in other countries enables health systems to incorporate best long-term care practices to fit each country and its culture. This symposium aims to compare long-term care policies and services in Taiwan, Singapore, and the USA where significant growth in aging populations is evidenced. In 2025, the aging population will be 20% in Taiwan, 20% in Singapore and 18 % in the USA. In the case of Taiwan, it has moved from aging society status to aged society, and to super-aged society in 27 years. Such accelerated rate of aging in Taiwan is unparalleled when compared to European countries and the United States. In response to this dramatic change, Taiwan has passed long-term care legislation that expands services to care for older adults, and developed person-centered health care that integrates acute and long-term care services. Some preliminary results related to access, care and patterns of utilization will be shared in the symposium. International Comparisons of Healthy Aging Interest Group Sponsored Symposium.


Author(s):  
He Chen ◽  
Jing Ning

Abstract Long-term care insurance (LTCI) is one of the important institutional responses to the growing care needs of the ageing population. Although previous studies have evaluated the impacts of LTCI on health care utilization and expenditure in developed countries, whether such impacts exist in developing countries is unknown. The Chinese government has initiated policy experimentation on LTCI to cope with the growing and unmet need for aged care. Employing a quasi-experiment design, this study aims to examine the policy treatment effect of LTCI on health care utilization and out-of-pocket health expenditure in China. The Propensity Score Matching with Difference-in-difference approach was used to analyse the data obtained from four waves of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). Our findings indicated that, in the aspect of health care utilization, the introduction of LTCI significantly reduced the number of outpatient visits by 0.322 times (p<0.05), the number of hospitalizations by 0.158 times (p<0.01), and the length of inpatient stay during last year by 1.441 days (p<0.01). In the aspect of out-of-pocket health expenditure, we found that LTCI significantly reduced the inpatient out-of-pocket health expenditure during last year by 533.47 yuan (p<0.01), but it did not exhibit an impact on the outpatient out-of-pocket health expenditure during last year. LTCI also had a significantly negative impact on the total out-of-pocket health expenditure by 512.56 yuan. These results are stable in the robustness tests. Considering the evident policy treatment effect of LTCI on health care utilization and out-of-pocket health expenditure, the expansion of LTCI could help reduce the needs for health care services and contain the increases in out-of-pocket health care expenditure in China.


2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Keboa ◽  
Anne Beaudin ◽  
Julie Cyr ◽  
Janick Decoste ◽  
Frances Power ◽  
...  

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