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Chronic Disease-Economic Impacts of Illness

The Economic impacts of illness theme is led by A/Prof Deborah Schofield. It is funded through ARC and NHMRC grant. The aim of this project is to determine the economic impacts of disease on older workers, aged 45 to 65 years. Older workers have been identified by the Australian government as a central part of its strategy to manage the anticipated costs of population ageing by encouraging greater participation in the labour force. However the extent to which this will be limited by disease has not been examined. To do this a microsimulation model called Health&WealthMOD is being developed and the 45&up survey is being used to:

  • Determine whether increased longevity results in better health in persons of older working age;
  • Model labour force participation and retirement of older workers and its relationship to illness;
  • Model the costs to individuals of early retirement related to illness;
  • Model the costs to the Australian government of early retirement related to illness;
  • Identify health conditions having the greatest economic impact in relation to early retirement;
  • Estimate the potential impact of reduced illness in the older working age population;
  • Estimate the economic impacts of leaving workforce to care fro someone who is ill;
  • Compare the economic outcomes for those who retire early due to their own or a family member’s ill health with those who retire for other reasons.

Researchers Involved

Deborah Schofield

Publications

Schofield D, Fletcher S Earnest A, Passey M, Shestha, R (2008) Where do older people with chronic conditions work? MJA 2008; 188 (4): 231-234.

Deborah Schofield and George Rothman (2007) Projections of Commonwealth Health Expenditure in Australia's First Intergenerational Report, in Gupta, A. and Harding, A. (eds.), Modelling Our Future: Population Ageing, Health and Aged Care, Chapter 7, International Symposia in Economic Theory and Econometrics, Volume 16, Elsevier B. V., Amsterdam, pp. pp.149-168.

Schofield D, Passey M, Earnest A, Gloor I, Shrestha R (2007) Are We Getting Healthier As We Grow Older? Implications for baby boomer labour force participation. Ed. by Weller; N Weller; J Weller C Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci.). Proceedings from the Healthy Aging and Longevity: Third International Conference Vol. 1114, issue 1, 230-240