Venue: The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, 1 Towerview Drive, Durham, NC 27708-0120

 

Presentation

Temporal Trends in the Relative Cost of Dying: Evidence from Canada

Authors: Greg Payne (University of Toronto); Audrey Laporte (University of Toronto); David Foot (University of Toronto); Peter Coyte (University of Toronto)

Presenter: Audrey Laporte (University of Toronto)

Session: Poster Session

Room: Kirby Winter Garden

When: Monday 2:30 p.m. - 3:15 p.m.

Objective: To measure changes over time in the relationship between health care expenditures for individuals that die in a given year and surviving individuals of the same age.

Data Sources / Study Setting: Secondary utilization data for government-funded hospital, doctor, prescription drugs, and continuing care services for the 65+ population in the province of British Columbia between 1991 and 2001.

Study Design: Individuals were separated according to age group and decedent / survivor status. The average cost of utilization was estimated for each age group and survivor status in each year from 1991 to 2001. Time trends in decedent and survivor costs, and the ratio between the two, were analyzed for each service category.

Principal Findings: Inflation-adjusted decedent costs rose nearly 10% between 1991 and 2001, while survivor costs fell slightly. The ratio of decedent to survivor costs rose for all age groups, increasing most for hospital and continuing care costs. Although the death rate of the study population fell, the proportion of health care costs allocated to decedents rose by 8%.

Conclusions: If mortality rates continue to fall, lower survivor costs and higher decedent costs should lead to reductions in forecasts of health expenditure growth due to aging.