Objective: While the coronavirus outbreak overburdens health systems, leading to a significant global death toll and severe human suffering across the world, the pandemic brought questions regarding how Türkiye manages this huge pandemic and whether Türkiye’s health system is ready for coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19). With the Health Transformation Program (HTP) which was implemented from 2003 to 2013, Türkiye made noteworthy progress in the main measures of health condition by making noteworthy investments in the healthcare sector. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of health expenditures on the selected health indicators of Türkiye for the 1977-2018 period, which covers the significant transformation process under the HTP.
Methods: We employ the Bayer and Hanck cointegration test and the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds test to examine the existence of a long-term relationship between the variables by using life expectancy at birth, infant mortality rate, and crude death rate as dependent variables, and health expenditures as a regressor.
Results: The results of cointegration tests support the evidence of a long-run relationship between the variables, showing that an increase in health expenditures decreases infant mortality rates and crude death rates while increasing life expectancy rates. Our results also imply that after the HTP, the effect of health expenditures on indicators has increased.
Conclusion: We conclude that investments in the healthcare system led to improvements in healthcare indicators. In fighting diseases like the COVID-19 epidemic, the strength of the health system is of great importance. Investing in people’s health as human capital boosts the population’s overall health and strengthens employability, which increases the effectiveness of active employment strategies, aids in securing acceptable living conditions, and promotes growth.
JEL Codes: H11, H53, O40
Cite this article as: Kılcı EN, Yılancı V. A study on the effect of health expenditures on selected healthcare indicators: evidence from Türkiye. Arch Health Sci Res. Published online November 28, 2024. doi: 10.5152/ArcHealthSciRes.2024.24086.