title: The impact of no-fault compensation on health care expenditures: an empirical study of OECD countries.
abstract: Around the world, governments are faced with spiralling health care expenditures. This raises the need for further insight in the determinants of these expenditures. Existing literature focuses primarily on income, ageing, health care financing and supply variables. This paper includes medical malpractice system characteristics as determinants of health spending in OECD countries. Estimates from our regression models suggest that no-fault schemes for medical injuries with decoupling of deterrence and compensation reduce health expenditures per capita by 0.11%. Furthermore, countries that introduced a no-fault system without decoupling of deterrence and compensation are found to have higher (+0.06%) health care spending.
authors.affiliation: Hasselt University, Faculty of Applied Economics, Martelarenlaan 42, BE-3500 Hasselt, Belgium. Electronic address: tom.vandersteegen@uhasselt.be.
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Vandersteegen
authors.affiliation: Hasselt University, Faculty of Applied Economics, Martelarenlaan 42, BE-3500 Hasselt, Belgium. Electronic address: wim.marneffe@uhasselt.be.
authors.forename: Wim
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Marneffe
authors.affiliation: Hasselt University, Faculty of Applied Economics, Martelarenlaan 42, BE-3500 Hasselt, Belgium. Electronic address: irina.cleemput@uhasselt.be.
authors.forename: Irina
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Cleemput
authors.affiliation: Hasselt University, Faculty of Applied Economics, Martelarenlaan 42, BE-3500 Hasselt, Belgium. Electronic address: lode.vereeck@uhasselt.be.
authors.forename: Lode
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vereeck
mesh_terms: D035881:Compensation and Redress / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D003675:Defensive Medicine; D036262:Empirical Research; D005102:Health Expenditures; D016365:Liability, Legal / Q000191:economics; D008318:Malpractice / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D066150:Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development; D012044:Regression Analysis
keywords: Defensive medicine; Health care expenditures; Medical liability system; No-fault compensation; OECD countries