The analysis of factors determining health demand in the framework of Grossman model

Health is the main source of all living life. Healthy time is the most basic real constraint of income generation and economic activities. Poor health conditions and diseases increase the deterioration of the health stock and the expected life expectancy may increase less than it should. In this case, individuals are expected to make an effort to compensate for worn-out health stocks (demand for health). Grossman was the first theoretician to systematically build the model of health capital demand. According to Grossman, who emphasizes that individuals' demands for health services are the desire to reach old health levels and health is an economic good, health services are final goods. In the Grossman model, it is assumed that individuals are born with a certain health legacy that is worn out over time and that health can be replaced by investments. In order to maintain a healthy state of health, which is the basic constraint of all economic activity (consumption, production and distribution), individuals must maximize their expected life expectancy over a certain amortization rate over time. According to Grossman, the increase in a person's stock of knowledge and skills increases the accumulation of human capital by affecting market and non-market productivity; however, the health stock determines the total amount of time it can spend to earn money and produce goods and services. In this study, the model of Grossman's health demands from Turkey with reference samples were analyzed demand for health care movement. In this study, the factors affecting life expectancy and health expenditures at birth were determined by econometric models (OLS and Quantile Regression). According to the results, it has been concluded that there is a negative relationship between life expectancy at birth and chronic diseases. Efforts to recover the health stock (health expenditures, sports, consumption fruits) have had positive effects on the average life expectancy. In addition, considering the fact that health is a human capital component, it is concluded that education level and income level reduce chronic health problems and indirectly have a positive effect on average life expectancy through health stock. It was concluded that the results obtained were consistent with Grossman's theoretical demand health model. Based on the results of the analysis and the applied literature, decision makers have been offered feasible political arguments to increase health stock, which is one of the main constraints of economic activities.