Aging and public health expenditures in Spain: assessing some determinants of public hospital costs during the last decade in Spain.

Public health expenditure has a clear tendency of increase in Spain in recent years. Assessing its determinants is extremely important to predict future health consumption and adjust government policies to attend future demand. Population aging is among one of the most important variables that trigger health expenditures. Deeper analysis is needed to understand which is the share of health costs growth attributable to population aging, regarding other factors like technological change or budget level allocated to health expenditures. We use a hospital cost survey to analyze the age profile of public expenditures on hospitals during the last decade in Spain. Results show that during these years average hospital spending by age grew constantly for almost all age groups, but especially among the elderly. Health care for people 80 years of age or above increased 141% from 2000 to 2009, even though they represent only 13% of the total hospital expenditure.