Crowding-Out Effect of Out-of-Pocket Health Expenditures on Consumption Among Households in Mongolia

Medical education in Mongolia: Challenges and opportunities

In the early twentieth century, Mongolia saw the establishment of Western medicine and educational system, supplementing its pre-existing history of eastern medicine. As a lower-middle-income country with vast landmass and low population density, Mongolia's medical education landscape has evolved significantly. The inception of the Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences in 1942 marked a pivotal moment, initiating the modern era of medical sciences and specialized training programs in the country. Initially shaped by Soviet Union-styled medical curriculum, the system has undergone substantial reform since the constitutional shift to a market economy in the 1990s. This transformation aligned the curriculum with international standards and modern educational approach, focusing on producing skilled medical professionals. Presently, over 10 public and private institutions of higher education in Mongolia provide comprehensive undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate training for medical training. These institutions vary in student enrollment, teaching staff, learning environments, and program models, contributing to the diverse landscape of medical education in the country.

Economic Implications of Health Care Burden for Elderly Population

The implications of population aging for economic growth is not only the shrinking working-age population, but also the increasing health care burden of the elderly population. It is difficult to explain clearly the relationship between a country’s aging population and its economy without considering health effects. Based on the Solow economic growth model, the aims of this study are to estimate the economic effects of the health care burden for elderly population, and to access whether reducing effective labor input for economic production. The analysis employs a set of econometric approaches including fixed effects, generalized method of moments, instrumental variable, and mediation regression analyses using a multinational multi-database covering the years 2000-2019. The empirical evidence indicates that the health care burden was negatively correlated with economic growth during the study period, with every 1% increase in the health care burden leading to a 0.083% decrease in the GDP growth rate. The results of heterogeneity analysis and mediating analysis further confirmed that worsening health in the elderly population could be associated with the deceleration in economic development through the indirect pathway that lowering the employment rate of working-age population. This study provides new empirical evidence on the economic impact of population aging that the poor health of elderly population can be one critical factor of limiting economic growth, for the reason the labor inputs in household production are likely crowded out by family caregiving.

A Country-Level Empirical Study on the Fiscal Effect of Elderly Population Health: The Mediating Role of Healthcare Resources

Demographic shifts towards an aging population are becoming a significant fiscal challenge for governments. Previous research has explored the fiscal consequences of the expanding elderly population, but the impact on the elderly’s health quality is less mentioned. The balanced relationship between elderly population health and public finance is a major concern of the global political agenda on the aging society. This article used cross-country panel data from 2000 to 2019 to examine the fiscal effect of the elderly health burden and the mediating role of healthcare resources. The results are demonstrated: The elderly health burden has a negative impact on fiscal balance, especially in aged society and longevity countries. Moreover, the mediating effect of healthcare resources is significant, whereby various forms of healthcare resources such as funds, labor, and facilities all have significant effects. Thus, the conceptual framework of elderly population health, healthcare resources, and public finance is confirmed that the elderly health burden specifically leads to the growing consumption of healthcare resources, which reduces the fiscal balance. It is concluded that reducing the elderly health burden and improving healthcare resource efficiencies are two feasible strategies to enhance fiscal sustainability.