국민의료비증가의 요인분해를 통한 변동요인과 적정성 분석

Abstract

The increase of National Health Expenditure(NHE) can result in the inefficient use of resources because the basic features of the health care market are closely related to oversupply or overdemand. Therefore it is necessary to analyse the determinants and appropriateness of the NHE increase from diverse perspectives. This article sees the NHE increase from the aspect of price-quantity decomposition. Firstly, it investigates which component of the decomposition is important and how the related appropriateness can be decided. Secondly the major analysis results and policy implications are presented. According to the results the most part of the increase rate of NHE in the observed interval can be explained by two main components, that is, by the general price increase rate with the contribution ratio 35% and by the increase rate of volume-intensity of services per person with the contribution ratio 60%. But since 1996 the excess health care inflation grows steadily, which can lead to the conclusion that the excess health care inflation can be the future major component of the Korea's NHE increase as it is the case in the most developed countries. This tendency can be interpreted as inappropriate because the increasing part of NHE goes not to quantity increase, but to price increase. In this case it is recommended to hold the medical price appropriate and to improve the productivity and quality. Lastly the elder population does not contribute much to the NHE increase yet. But the contribution have the tendency to the steady increase. Therefore it is necessary to observe the tendency carefully and to prepare for the results in the future.