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Abstract

Healthcare expenditure has been increasing in the United States alone since at least 1997 but economists have been trying to determine the factors that affect spending levels long before then. The most widely researched factors include: income, population, technology and wellness. There is a lack of agreement on which variable best describes the changes and levels of healthcare spending. The purpose of this research is to use SPSS software to run an OLS regression and analyze the impact of the four most commonly researched variables of healthcare spending to determine which affects expenditure the most. Insight into this topic could provide policy makers with a new angle on how to tackle rising health costs and redirect government funds into areas that would have a more significant impact on the country's economic and physical health. This research finds that wellness of the country, in terms of infant mortality rate, to have the highest significance on healthcare expenditure. As this impact is determined to be positive, meaning that a higher infant mortality rate leads to a higher level of healthcare spending, this potentially indicates that countries should focus on bringing their health standards up in order to cut expenses in the healthcare sector.

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