Population ageing and health financing: A method for forecasting two sides of the same coin

There is a common perception that population ageing will adversely affect health financing sustainability. Yet the extent to which changes in population age-structure affect health financing is dependent not only on the age mix of the population, but also on how health expenditure levels vary by age, as well as how health revenues are generated. If health expenditures grow more rapidly than revenues as a result of population ageing, there will invariably be a health financing gap.

To better understand the implications of population ageing for health financing and to identify policy options, the European Observatory, together with the WHO Kobe Centre, developed the Population Ageing financial Sustainability gap for Health systems (or alternatively, the PASH) Simulator tool. The PASH Simulator tool allows a user to see how both health expenditures and health revenues are expected to change through the end of the century due to changes in population age-structure across a wide range of countries. Where there is a financing gap between revenues and expenditures, users can explore potential policy options. The overall message is that how population ageing affects health financing is a policy choice, rather than an inevitable consequence of ageing societies. 

Read the related article here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168851022002731?via…;

Source: https://eurohealthobservatory.who.int/themes/observatory-programmes/hea…