Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the main cause of death in Romania. The objective of the paper is to explain the number of deaths caused by the diseases of circulatory system in relation to health expenditures per capita, the number of public hospitals with cardiology sections and the number of cardiologists. The analysis in the paper is based on panel data models and Bayesian linear models. A panel data approach for Romanian macro-regions in the period from 1995-2016 was used to show that an increase in the number of cardiologists would reduce the number of deaths caused by the diseases of circulatory system. The Bayesian approach to national data indicated that the increase in expenditures per capita would alleviate the incidence of deaths caused by CVD. The public health policies in relation to patients with CVD should focus on the future on higher expenditures per person, but the number of public hospitals and doctors treating these diseases should also continue to grow. Future healthcare policies should be also focused on reducing the number of specialists migrating to wealthier countries.
Keywords: cardiologist; healthcare expenditures; healthcare policy; heart diseases; hospital.