Social Health Insurance - the Major Driver of Unsustainable Fiscal Policy?

46 Pages Posted: 23 Nov 2005

See all articles by Christian Hagist

Christian Hagist

WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management

Norbert Klusen

Techniker Krankenkasse

Andreas Plate

Techniker Krankenkasse

Bernd Raffelhüschen

University of Freiburg; University of Bergen; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Date Written: October 2005

Abstract

During the next decades the populations of most developed countries will grow older as a result of the low level of birth rates since the 1970s and/or the continuously increasing life expectancy. We show within a Generational Accounting framework how unsustainable the public finances of France, Germany, Switzerland and the U.S. are, given their demographic developments. Thereby our focus lies on social health insurance systems that are in addition affected by medical-technical progress. Due to the cost-increasing effect of medical-technical progress one can justifiably say that social health insurance schemes are the major drivers behind unsustainable fiscal policies.

JEL Classification: H51, I11

Suggested Citation

Hagist, Christian and Klusen, Norbert and Plate, Andreas and Raffelhueschen, Bernd, Social Health Insurance - the Major Driver of Unsustainable Fiscal Policy? (October 2005). CESifo Working Paper Series No. 1574, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=845349 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.845349

Christian Hagist

WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management ( email )

Burgplatz 2
Vallendar, 56179
Germany

Norbert Klusen

Techniker Krankenkasse ( email )

Bramfelder Strasse 140
D-22305 Hamburg
Germany

Andreas Plate

Techniker Krankenkasse ( email )

Bramfelder Strasse 140
D-22305 Hamburg
Germany

Bernd Raffelhueschen (Contact Author)

University of Freiburg ( email )

Fahnenbergplatz
Freiburg, D-79085
Germany
49-7612032353 (Phone)
49-7612042290 (Fax)

University of Bergen

Muséplassen 1
N-5008 Bergen, +47 55 58
Norway

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.cesifo.de

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