The Association Between Healthcare Expenditure and Life Expectancy: Evidence from Global Health Data
Keywords:
Healthcare Expenditure, Life Expectancy, Panel Econometrics, Population Health, Disease Burden.Abstract
This study investigates the macro structural association between national healthcare expenditure and population life expectancy utilizing an empirical longitudinal panel dataset of sovereign nations over a twenty year observation window. Aggregating secondary data from international databases, advanced econometrics including fixed effects and dynamic system general method of moments estimations were executed to isolate fiscal elasticity while controlling for chronic disease burdens, socio environmental risk dimensions, and structural endogeneity. Quantitative findings reveal a positive and statistically significant relationship between current healthcare expenditure and baseline longevity, though marginal survival gains experience substantial non linear attenuation once spending passes critical economic thresholds. Furthermore, high prevalence rates of non communicable diseases, metabolic risk factors, environmental degradation, rapid unplanned urbanization, and macroeconomic instability significantly weaken the efficiency of health spending. Technological innovation, equitable capital deployment, and institutional governance capacity emerge as critical moderating mechanisms that optimize fiscal returns into biological longevity expansion. Ultimately, financial capital expansion remains a necessary but insufficient condition for maximizing human lifespan, necessitating an integrative policy framework that combines fiscal investment with proactive disease prevention and environmental stewardship.
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