Enhancing People's Subjective Wellbeing: Assessing the Impact of Universal Health Coverage Through Wellbeing Adjusted Life Years

Ryan Joseph R. Dizon

Forum for Social Economics, 2024, vol. 53, issue 4, 459-486

Abstract: The establishment of public health programs, such as universal health coverage (UHC), aims to ensure health and wellbeing for all throughout the life course. These health programs have far-reaching impacts that extend beyond physical health. This study examines the impact of UHC on people's subjective wellbeing through a cross-country analysis using a multidimensional measure of health: the wellbeing adjusted life years (WALYs). WALYs are derived from life satisfaction data from the European Values Study and World Values Survey (1990–2014). The study employs an instrumental variable approach and Lewbel's method—a heteroscedasticity-based identification strategy, and additionally incorporates personality into the model. Findings suggest a positive impact of UHC on health and wellbeing, however the overall impact on WALYs is small (i.e. 20%). It is suggested to equally prioritise mental and social wellbeing alongside physical health to maximise the programs' benefits, as these aspects are often overlooked in assessing and improving health.

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/07360932.2024.2384927 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:fosoec:v:53:y:2024:i:4:p:459-486

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RFSE20

DOI: 10.1080/07360932.2024.2384927

Access Statistics for this article

Forum for Social Economics is currently edited by William Milberg, Dr Wolfram Elsner, Philip O'Hara, Cecilia Winters and Paolo Ramazzotti

More articles in Forum for Social Economics from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().