This paper investigates the impact the changes in the health care budget had on the reported levels of satisfaction in Spain during the recent economic crisis. We match individual-level data from six different waves of the European Social Survey (ESS) with regional-level expenditures in both public and private health care services between 2008 and 2018. Specifically, we analyze the effect of the three main public health care spending components (hospital and specialized health care, pharmacy and primary health care) and the aggregate private expenditures on health care borne directly by households, i.e., out-of-pocket payments. The results provide clear evidence in favor of the contention that hospital and specialized health care is positively related to life satisfaction. This result is robust as it is not affected by cyclical fluctuations of the economy nor by individual preferences. In contrast, political preferences do seem to play a role in determining how government expenditures in pharmacy and primary services influence the levels of well-being of its citizens.

本文调查了在最近的经济危机期间，医疗保健预算的变化对西班牙所报告的满意度的影响。我们将六次不同的欧洲社会调查（ESS）浪潮中的个人水平数据与2008年至2018年期间公共和私人医疗服务的区域级支出进行了匹配。具体地说，我们分析了三大主要公共卫生支出的影响组成部分（医院和专业医疗保健，药房和初级医疗保健）以及私人直接用于家庭的医疗保健总支出，即自付费用。结果提供了明确的证据，支持以下论点：医院和专科医疗与生活满意度成正比。该结果是可靠的，因为它既不受经济周期波动的影响，也不受个人偏好的影响。相反，政治偏好似乎确实在决定政府在药房和基本服务方面的支出如何影响其公民的福祉水平方面发挥了作用。