Impact of population ageing on medical consumption: Compulsory health insurance in morocco

Abstract

Introduction: compulsory health insurance schemes for all employees in public and private sector are causing, on the one hand, continual he alth care spending growth and, on the other hand, are experiencing an increase in the number of covered population aged over 60 ye ars. The purpose of this study was to analyze the impact of ageing on the estimated average expenditure per covered person wit h health insurance. Methods: we conducted Kruskal - Wallis test to assess whether there was any significant difference between populations of different age on medical consumptio n, depending on whether the person was affected or not by a diseases of long dura tion. Other indicators were also analyzed, namely the proportion of the population suffering from a disease of long duration demanding health care, the average expenditure per person affected b y a diseases of long duration and the average expenditure per c overed person not affected by a disease of long duration for both people under 60 years and those over 60 years. Results: Kruskal - Wallis test showed that age is an explanatory variable for the average expenditure per covered person. The examination of the evolution of the main components of average expenditure allowed to highlight other factors. Conclusion: population ageing contributes to the increase of medical consumption but there are other factors which have a significant effect on the increase in expe nditure.