Does a country’s greater health care spending lead to better health outcomes for its population? -Evidence from African Health Accounts

Moreover, government health spending had a significant effect on reducing neonatal and child mortality and the size of the effect depended on the quality of governance in the country as indicated by a panel data analysis from 133 countries for the years 1995, 2000, 2005, and 2006 (Farag et al (2013)). [...] The core accounting framework is organised around a tri-axial system for the recording of health care expenditure, namely classifications of the functions of health care (ICHA-HC), health care provision (ICHA-HP), and financing schemes (ICHA-HF), as presented in the below figure. [...] Similarly to the rest of the countries in the sample, the GDP per capita in Kenya has been increasing with a slight pace between 2002 and 2014, while the health expenditure (in % of GDP) has been fairly stagnant, teetering around the 3% point. [...] This is alarming and could also leave some of the countries vulnerable to foreign donor funding (particularly in the area of health), which, with shifting donor preferences and sectors of intervention could further jeopardize the advancements made in improving the health outcomes in the selected countries. [...] While the public health expenditure is usually directed towards improving health infrastructure (number of trained doctors, trained nurses, investment in facilities), the private expenditure (usually out of pocket) is usually a result of the inefficiencies of the system (e.g.