Impacts of Universal Health Coverage: Financing, Income Inequality, and Social Welfare
Huang, Xianguo; Yoshino, Naoyuki | November 2016
Abstract
This paper studies the impact of tax-financed universal health coverage schemes on macroeconomic aspects of labor supply, asset holding, inequality, and welfare, while taking into account features common to developing economies, such as informal employment and tax avoidance, by constructing a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with heterogeneous agents. Agents have different education levels, employment statuses, and idiosyncratic shocks. Given three tax financing options, calibration results based on the Thai economy suggest that the financing options matter for outcomes both at the aggregate and disaggregate levels. Universal health coverage, financed by labor income tax revenue, could reduce inequality due to its large redistributive role. Social welfare cannot be improved when labor decisions are endogenous and distortions are higher than the redistributive gains for all tax financing options. In the absence of labor supply choice, mild welfare gains are found. In a broader sense, the paper aims to provide a frame for policy evaluation of socioeconomic policies from both macro and micro perspectives, taking different social groups into consideration.
Citation
Huang, Xianguo; Yoshino, Naoyuki. 2016. Impacts of Universal Health Coverage: Financing, Income Inequality, and Social Welfare. © Asian Development Bank Institute. http://hdl.handle.net/11540/6863.Keywords
Good Governance
Governance Approach
Governance Models
World Health Organization
Quality of Health Care
Public Health Finance
Private Health Care
Healthier Families
Nutrition and Health Care
Health Statistics
Health Objectives
Health Issues
Health Care Cost Control
Political Leadership
Public Administration
Traditional Medicine
Medical Statistics
Medical Services
Medical Costs
Health Costs
Medical Aspects
Child Nutrition
Disease Control
Diseases
Civil government
Common good
Federal government
Delivery of government services
Government missions
Taxation
Public health records
Cost of medical care
Nutrition policy
Health status indicators
Show allCollapse