Raising and Spending Domestic Money for Health
Working Group Paper
In 2010 low income countries spent only $32 per capita on health including public and private spending and that received from external sources. But it is estimated that $60 per capita is required to provide a basic standard of health services to their populations. The nearly threefold rise in external funding for health since 2000 has not therefore been sufficient to bridge this gap.
Most people in low incomes countries also rely heavily on private out of pocket healthcare spending which means many cannot afford services they need or suffer severe financial hardship as a result. Mechanisms are required through tax or insurance measures to remedy this situation.
Some countries can have increased the amount of public expenditure on health by introducing measures to increase general tax revenues and thus the scope for more health spending.
Health financing in the African Region: 2000–2009 data analysis
In order to raise African countries probability of achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by 2015, there is need to increase and more efficiently use domestic and external funding to strengthen health systems infrastructure in order to ensure universal access to quality health care. The objective of this paper is to examine the changes that have occurred in African countries on health financing, taking into account the main sources of funding over the period 2000 to 2009.