By Indranil, 4 Nov 2021, in People’s Health Dispatch
The way health systems are financed has a lot to do with the distribution of health inequities around the world. If rich countries were to change their approach to health financing, everyone would benefit. The models chosen for financing health systems have a profound impact on how they function and to whom healthcare is accessible. Public investment in health has been long recognized as a financing model that improves access and diminishes inequalities, but it has yet to become the predominant financing model. Even in those countries that rely on public spending for health, the money often gets diverted to private providers, which undermines the potential of the model.
Even though there is a sort of global consensus that public spending is essential – not necessarily sufficient – to improve the health of people, there remain staggering inequalities in public investment across countries. Countries with higher incomes are more likely to invest in health than those with lower income. For instance, High Income Country (HICs) governments spend around $2,235 (median) per person per year on health. In contrast, average per capita government spending in Low Income Countries (LICs) is less than one hundredth of the HIC average – $22.
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