| Abstract: | It is well-known for a long time, that health care expenditure of elder people are a lot higher than expenditure of younger people, we call this correlation of average per-capita-expenditure and age expenditure profiles. If health care expenditures for the elderly grow faster than for younger people, the expenditure profiles become ?steeper“. Data of a German private health insurer are used to investigate the phenomenon growing steepness of profiles over a period of 18 years. In the article three instruments for measuring the phenomenon of growing steeper expenditure profiles are proposed. None of them is perfect, but the more or less common trend shows that the profiles of the investigated health insurance plans did grow steeper. The health plans of men do reflect this phenomenon clearer than those of women and the inpatient plans do show a stronger effect than the outpatient plans. Research of causes by data is not possible because of the given data structure. But neither the correlation between health expenditure and time til death nor the improving life expectancy can help to explain the phenomenon. |
