Impact of Universal Social Coverage on Life Expectancy: An Econometric Analysis Using an ARDL Model

The objective of this study was to examine the impact of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) on life expectancy, along with other determinants of the health status of the population in Morocco, using indicators representing health status measured by indicators such as education rates, urbanization rates, or indicators specific to access to healthcare and other variables divided into socioeconomic variables and healthcare system variables. As a method, we estimated an ARDL (AutoRegressive Distributed Lag) model on annual data representing the health status of the population in Morocco covering the period from 1990 to 2023. To do this, the ARDL (AutoRegressive Distributed Lag) approach was used to estimate the short-term and long-term dynamic relationship between life expectancy and its determinants using EViews software. As the results confirm the hypothesis of a long-term cointegration relationship and equilibrium between life expectancy and universal health coverage. They reveal that universal health coverage has a positive and statistically significant effect on life expectancy with a long-term coefficient of +1.249 (p<0.001). This estimate empirically validates the hypothesis that universal health coverage is a key determinant of improved population health.