Fiscal rules, powerful levers for controlling the health budget? Evidence from 32 OECD countries

BMC Public Health

Table 5 Fiscal rules targeting public health care expenditure between 1985 and 2014

Country	Expenditure Rule (ER)	Balanced Budget Rule (BBR) National	Balanced Budget Rule (BBR) Supranational	Balanced Budget Rule (BBR) Both
Australia	1985–1988 2009–2014	1985–1988 1998–2014	–	–
Austria^a	2013-2014	–	1995-1998	1999–2014
Belgium	1993–1998	–	1992–2014	–
Canada	1998–2005	1998–2005	–	–
Chile	–	2001–2014	–	–
Czech Republic	–	–	2004–2014	–
Denmark	1994–2014	–	–	1992–2014
Estonia	–	1993–2003	–	2004–2014
Finland	2003–2014	–	1995–1998	1999–2014
France	1998–2014	–	1992–2012	2013–2014
Germany	1985–2014	1985–1991	–	1992–2014
Greece	2010–2014	–	1992–2014	–
Hungary	2010–2011	–	2012–2014	2004–2011
Iceland	2004–2008	–	–	–
Ireland	–	–	1992–2014	–
Israel	2005–2014	1992–2014	–	–
Italy	–	–	1992–2013	2014
Japan	2006–2008 2010–2014	1985–2014	–	–
Luxembourg	1990–2014	–	1992–2014	–
Mexico	–	2006–2014	–	–
Netherlands	1994–2014	–	1992–2013	2014
New Zealand	–	1994–2014	–	–
Norway	–	2001–2014	–	–
Poland	2011–2014	–	2004–20052008–2014	2006–2007
Portugal	–	–	1992–2014	–
Slovak Republic	–	–	2004–2014	–
Slovenia	–	–	2004–2014	–
Spain	2011–2014	–	1992–2002	2003–2014
Sweden	1997–2014	–	1995–1999	2000–2014
Switzerland^b	–	–	–	–
United Kingdom	–	–	1992–1996	1997–2014
United States^c	2011–2014	–	–	–

^aModification of the original dataset; Austria introduced a budget cap in 2013, see [37]
^bModification of the original dataset; the Swiss fiscal rules (introduced in 2003) cover only the relatively small federal budget and excludes health care expenditure, see [38]
^cModification of the original dataset; the 1985 and 1990 ER did not target Medicare or Medicaid spending. The 2011 ER did target Medicare spendingSource: IMF 2015

ISSN: 1471-2458