Health care and life satisfaction in Spain: an empirical analysis for the period 2002-2014

Abstract

This document analyzes the effect of health care spending on the reported level of satisfaction in Spain during the period 2002 - 2014. Using data from the European Social Survey a panel data model is estimated for the 17 different regions over the 7 waves of the survey. The results show that health care spending per capita do have a positive effect on life satisfaction. Analyzing its three main components separately, it turns out that only the expenditures on pharmacy and primary health care seem to explain this effect. In addition, the outcomes of the model also show that both higher levels of GDP growth and GDP per capita tend to explain higher levels of satisfaction. Oddly enough, unemployment and inflation also seem to be positively correlated. Finally, some social characteristics also appear to explain some of these variations, such as marital status and subjective perception of one´s health