[Health expenditure and health outcomes in Latin America and the CaribbeanGastos em saúde e resultados de saúde na América Latina e no Caribe].

Abstract

Objective: To determine the effect of public and private health expenditure on health outcomes in Latin American and Caribbean countries from 2000 to 2019.

Methods: A health production function was used, wherein life expectancy at birth and infant mortality rate were considered as indicators of health outcomes. Panel data econometrics were applied, using data from a 33-country sample for the period from 2000 to 2019.

Results: According to estimates, a 1% increase in public health expenditure is associated with a 0.019% increase in life expectancy, and a 1% increase in private health expenditure increases life expectancy by 0.023%. At the same time, a 1% increase in public health expenditure reduces the infant mortality rate by -0.168%, whereas the effect of private health expenditure on infant mortality is not statistically significant.

Conclusions: The results provide evidence of the effect of public health expenditure in reducing infant mortality and increasing life expectancy, while private health expenditure has a positive effect only on the latter metric. The findings have important political implications for the countries of the Region in the post-pandemic context of limited fiscal space.