Targeting and benefit equity in the use of public health care facilities in Cameroon

Abstract

In the late eighties, stringent conditions were set out for non-wage expenditures in Cameroon, of which public spending on health care is one. Moreover, the government puts in place a cost recovery system; that drove individuals away from “modern” health institutions. But as the government increased its spending on social services in the second half of the 1990s, we sought to know if the rather modest increase in health expenditures was targeted to the poor, using a benefit incidence analysis. The concentration curves of the imputed benefit revealed a high degree of progressivity globally, as well as over the milieu of living, regions, and types of uses, although less progressive in rural arrears and for diseases other than those reported. African Journal of Economic Policy Vol. 10(2) 2003: 81-102