STAT210 Final Project

Author

Yenran Yiran

Global Health Spending

I will be interpreting global health spending data from 195 countries and territories that ranges from the years 2000 to 2023, and that has been organized into three distinct datasets: health spending, financing schemes, and spending purpose. As I explore the datasets, I aim to answer several questions:

  • Which countries are spending the most on healthcare?
  • What kind of coverage is needed the most and where?
  • Are countries spending more to cure sickness or prevent it?
  • When was the most coverage needed globally and how does it compare to health care spending during COVID-19 (in 2020)?
  • What form of health care funding is most relied on?

Health Care Expenditures

Seen in the graph above, in 2023 the U.S. was spending the most on healthcare with a value exceeding 4 trillion dollars. That was significantly higher than most countries around the world. According to the World Bank Group, the population then was 336,806,231 people, which produces a CHE per capita of about $11,876.26 (per person), meaning just under $1000 a month.

In comparison, China had the next greatest CHE of about 1 trillion, but with a greater population of about 1.41 billion, which produces a CHE per capita estimated at $7 (per person). The notable difference is extreme.

The Kinds of Coverage Needed Most

It appears that curative care and medical goods were spent on most around the world in a given year, between 2016 and 2023, and have become increasingly necessary over time.

Global Spending Purposes Over Time vs. COVID-19 Pandemic

     Country Year       Purpose          USD
1       U.S. 2023 Curative care 3.092942e+12
2      China 2021 Curative care 6.574264e+11
3      Japan 2022 Curative care 2.665312e+11
4    Germany 2020 Curative care 2.482376e+11
5       U.K. 2023 Curative care 2.184013e+11
6     France 2022 Curative care 1.616336e+11
7     Canada 2023 Curative care 1.105507e+11
8      Italy 2021 Curative care 1.093931e+11
9  Australia 2020 Curative care 1.029578e+11
10    Brazil 2019 Curative care 9.821085e+10

Figure 1 A truncated data frame displaying highest spending purposes over the years by country.

     Country Year       Purpose          USD
1       U.S. 2020 Curative care 2.950185e+12
2      China 2020 Curative care 6.201658e+11
3    Germany 2020 Curative care 2.482376e+11
4      Japan 2020 Curative care 2.404580e+11
5       U.K. 2020 Curative care 2.008913e+11
6     France 2020 Curative care 1.525942e+11
7      Italy 2020 Curative care 1.036594e+11
8  Australia 2020 Curative care 1.029578e+11
9     Canada 2020 Curative care 1.017051e+11
10     Spain 2020 Curative care 8.623124e+10

Figure 2 A truncated data frame displaying highest spending purposes during 2020, when COVID-19 was officially declared a pandemic.

It can clearly be seen that regardless of the year, curative care tends to dominate healthcare spending purposes globally, and that the U.S. is always at the forefront in spending. The same trend holds during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Further, with curative care being the leading purpose of healthcare spending, it is helpful to compare against preventative care expenditures over time, shown in Figure 3 below. Preventative care expenditures are significantly less across countries, indicating more money has gone into treating illness than preventing it around the world. It’s also worth noting that several of the highest preventative care expenditures took place in 2021, when COVID-19 cases and deaths increased tremendously.

             Country Year         Purpose          USD
1               U.S. 2020 Preventive care 288060677452
2              China 2021 Preventive care  81103958264
3              Japan 2021 Preventive care  51612414563
4               U.K. 2021 Preventive care  48571754165
5            Germany 2022 Preventive care  47520085719
6             France 2021 Preventive care  19409879842
7             Canada 2023 Preventive care  16859200185
8  Republic of Korea 2022 Preventive care  13154388669
9              Italy 2021 Preventive care  13132240105
10         Indonesia 2021 Preventive care  12668116604

Figure 3 A truncated data frame displaying highest preventative care expenditures over the years by country.

Healthcare Funding

It appears government schemes and compulsory contributory health care financing schemes (leftmost column) have contributed the greatest funds for healthcare coverage around the world, and has steadily increased over time. Household out-of-pocket payments (OOPS) are relied on significantly less (middle column), but doesn’t diminish the potential high costs of care when paying visit to visit; these have also increased somewhat consistently over time. The least relied upon schemes are voluntary health care payment schemes (righmost column) which have instead decreased rather significantly over time. People are seemingly relying less and less on voluntary private, employer, or community based insurance plans globally.

(The colors in the graph above each represent a distinct country, however there are too many to provide a helpful legend)

Sources

Project Data Source: obtained from tidyverse

Population Reference: obtained from World Bank Group

COVID-19 Reference: obtained from John Hopkins University of Medicine