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Who Benefits from Government Health Spending and Why? A Global Assessment

This paper uses a common household survey instrument and a common set of imputation assumptions to estimate the pro-poorness of government health expenditure across 69 countries at all levels of income. On average, government health expenditure eme...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Wagstaff, Adam, Bilger, Marcel, Buisman, Leander R., Bredenkamp, Caryn
Language:English
en_US
Published: World Bank Group, Washington, DC 2014
Subjects:
ABBREVIATIONS
AVERAGE COSTS
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
CAPITATION
CLASSIFICATION
CLINICS
CONSUMER PRICE INDEX
CRIME
DECISION TREE
DESCRIPTION
DEVELOPMENT POLICY
DISEASE CONTROL
DOCTORS
ELASTICITY
EXERCISES
FOREIGN TRADE
FUTURE RESEARCH
FUTURE STUDIES
GDP
GDP PER CAPITA
GOVERNMENT SERVICES
GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT
GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT PER CAPITA
HEALTH CARE
HEALTH CARE UTILIZATION
HEALTH EXPENDITURE
HEALTH FACILITIES
HEALTH FOR ALL
HEALTH INDICATORS
HEALTH INSURANCE
HEALTH MINISTRIES
HEALTH ORGANIZATION
HEALTH PLANS
HEALTH POLICY
HEALTH SECTOR
HEALTH SERVICE
HEALTH SERVICES
HEALTH STATUS
HEALTH SYSTEM
HOSPITAL ADMISSION
HOSPITALS
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
IMPUTATION
IMPUTATION METHODS
INCIDENCE ANALYSIS
INCOME
INCOME DISTRIBUTION
INCOME TAXES
INDICES
INPATIENT CARE
IP
LIVING STANDARDS
NATIONAL INCOME
NUTRITION
OPEN ACCESS
OUTPATIENT CARE
PATIENTS
PER CAPITA INCOME
PER CAPITA INCOMES
PRICE CONTROLS
PRIMARY CARE
PRIVATE SECTOR
PRIVATE SECTORS
PUBLIC HEALTH
RESULT
RESULTS
SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS
SUPERVISION
USE VALUE
USER
USERS
USES
VOTERS
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/09/20229062/benefits-government-health-spending-global-assessment
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/20376
Description
Summary:This paper uses a common household survey instrument and a common set of imputation assumptions to estimate the pro-poorness of government health expenditure across 69 countries at all levels of income. On average, government health expenditure emerges as significantly pro-rich, but there is heterogeneity across countries: in the majority, government health expenditure is neither pro-rich nor pro-poor, while in a small minority it is pro-rich, and in an even smaller minority it is pro-poor. Government health expenditure on contracted private facilities emerges as significantly pro-rich for all types of care, and in almost all Asian countries government health expenditure overall is significantly pro-rich. The pro-poorness of government health expenditure at the country level is significantly and positively correlated with gross domestic product per capita and government health expenditure per capita, significantly and negatively correlated with the share of government facility revenues coming from user fees, and significantly and positively correlated with six measures of the quality of a country's governance; it is not, however, correlated with the size of the private sector nor with the degree to which the private sector delivers care disproportionately to the better-off. Because poorly-governed countries are underrepresented in the sample, government health expenditure is likely to be even more pro-rich in the world as a whole than it is in the countries in this study.

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