Health Satellite Accounts- Compilation Proposals for Romania

Carmen Luiza Costuleanu, Diana Dumitrescu, Gabriela Ignat and Stejărel Brezuleanu

Abstract:

For specific needs concerning the obtained data, i.e. for health, the best solution is to have separate satellite accounts as compared to System of National Accounts (SNA). We compiled and proposed two satellite accounts in relation with health care in Romania since the data for the health care industry are missing from official statistics. One health satellite account with high valuable information is one that includes total health expenditure, current health expenditure and gross capital formation, reported to GDP, as well as the percentage of GDP allocated to health care in time series, i.e. 2003-2009. A second approach is that health expenditure (amount or a percentage of GDP) time series could be analyzed in relation to a number of indicators of sustainable development, namely life expectancy at birth by gender, life expectancy at 65 years by gender, giving up care for financial reasons, mortality rate, death rates due to chronic diseases (total and by gender), suicide rates by gender and age and the number of injured at work.

The System of National Accounts (SNA) uses special classifications to analyze consumption, or more generally outlays, by different sectors according to the purpose for which the expenditure is undertaken, e.g. health, education, defending, etc. Such classifications are referred to as functional classifications. The classifications concerned are: Classification Of Individual COnsumption by Purpose (COICOP); Classification Of the Functions Of Government (COFOG); Classification Of the Purposes of Non-profit Institutions serving households (COPNI); Classification of Outlays of Producers by Purpose (COPP). The first three classifications might be used for partially analyzing the healthcare consumption. These ones are consistent in each of the goods and services covering health care. However, they refer to different institutional sectors (households, government and non-profit institutions) and thus the total calculation for the whole economy must take into account these differences (EC et al., 2008, p. 524).