An International Study of Health and General Systems of Financing Health Care

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Abstract
In a previous study the author explored the linear relationship between infant mortality and real gross domestic product per capita, the number of physicians per 10,000 persons, and the number of hospitals per 1,000 persons in 18 countries. That study is here expanded and updated to include the experience of 7 additional countries for a current total 25 countries. In addition, the present study extends the analysis to include several additional explanatory variables, and it includes data for 1965 so that the data set now covers 1955, 1960, and 1965. Following the methodology of the initial study, the relationship estimated between infant mortality and the several explanatory variables is used to calculate the level of infant mortality that one would expect to find in each country for each of the 3 years considered, given the values of the explanatory variables. The size and sign of the difference between the actual and expected levels is then used to approximate the effect of different general systems of providing and financing health care on overall health status, since infant mortality is an approximate index for the overall level of health. The results of the initial study are by and large confirmed. They show that the percentage of health services financed or directly controlled by governments, and information on the relative size of the health sector, are apparently not important determinants of levels of health. On the other hand, the proportion of health care resources devoted to the provision of nonpersonal public health care does appear to be a significant determinant and therefore the role of nonpersonal public health warrants further study.
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