Does universal health insurance act as a driver of increased life expectancy? Evidence from selected emerging economies

Abstract

Background: The world currently has experienced an unimaginable increase in life expectancy rate (LER). There are many factors that influence LER, including faith and forgiveness. However, an ongoing argument among scholars is whether health insurance is partly ascribed to the historical forces that drive the surge in LER among emerging countries. The study seeks to investigate the long-run effect of universal health insurance (UHI) on LER among 15 selected emerging countries spanning from 2000 to 2015. Methods: Using the panel unit root, panel cointegration, panel fully modified least squares (FMOLS), and employing the Dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) as a robust check, the study analyzed connections between the study variables. Results: The outcome of the results showed that UHI, physician ratio, healthcare expenditure, and educational factors are positive contributors to increasing life expectancy, while economic growth remained negatively significant in the selected emerging economies. Conclusion: This study showed that improved education, increased physician ratio, increasing health expenditures, and universal insurance coverage were correlated with increased life expectancy in emerging economies. In order to promote healthy lives of its citizens, a move toward UHI coverage is suggested since it increases the life expectancy rate among emerging nations.

Keywords

• universal health insurance
• life expectancy
• emerging countries
• fully modified least squares