Macroeconomic Effects of Healthcare Financing in Colombia

HACIENDA PUBLICA ESPANOLA-REVIEW OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
Publicado: 
Clasificación JEL: 
E10, E26, E62, F41

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María Teresa Ramírez-Giraldo, Karina Acosta, Olga Lucia Acosta Navarro, Lucia Arango-Lozano, Fernando Arias-Rodríguez, Oscar Iván Ávila-Montealegre, Oscar Reinaldo Becerra Camargo, Leonardo Bonilla-Mejía, Grey Yuliet Ceballos-Garcia, Luz Adriana Flórez, Juan Miguel Gallego-Acevedo, Luis Armando Galvis-Aponte, Luis M. García-Pulgarín, Andrés Felipe García-Suaza, Anderson Grajales, Daniela Gualtero-Briceño, Didier Hermida-Giraldo, Ana María Iregui-Bohórquez, Juliana Jaramillo-Echeverri, Karen Laguna-Ballesteros, Francisco Javier Lasso-Valderrama, Daniel Márquez, Carlos Alberto Medina-Durango, Ligia Alba Melo-Becerra, María Fernanda Meneses-González, Juan José Ospina-Tejeiro, Andrea Sofía Otero-Cortés, Daniel Parra-Amado, Juana Piñeros-Ruiz, Christian Manuel Posso-Suárez, Natalia Ramírez-Bustamante, Mario Andrés Ramos-Veloza, Jorge Leonardo Rodríguez-Arenas, Alejandro Sarasti-Sierra, Bibiana Taboada-Arango, Ana María Tribín-Uribe, Juanita Villaveces
Wilmer Martinez-Rivera, Manuel Darío Hernández-Bejarano

Real healthcare expenditure in Colombia is expected to increase by 49% over the next eight years, due to population aging, rising costs, and domestic policies. These trends add significant pressure to public finances, in a context of high levels of informality. Using a dynamic general equilibrium model with heterogeneous households, we analyze the macroeconomic impact of financing higher public healthcare expenditure through different taxes. Funding sources play a significant role in shaping the aggregate dynamics and income inequality. While consumption taxes are the best option in terms of output, financing with taxes on high-skilled labor improves income distribution with similar effects on production. Population aging puts additional pressure on aggregate dynamics by reducing labor supply, savings and capital accumulation.