{"title":"Do public health expenditures affect maternal and child health in Madagascar?","authors":"Marilys Victoire Razakamanana, Voahirana Tantely Andrianatoandro, Tiarinisaina Olivier Ramiandrisoa","doi":"10.1186/s13561-023-00462-7","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Previous studies have argued that the relationship between health expenditures and health outcomes is more significant among the poor than the non-poor. However, public spending alone does not improve health status. Quality of governance is considered not only as an important determinant of health outcomes but also of the efficiency of public expenditure on health. In low-income countries, barriers to quality service provision can be observed, which may explain the effects of health expenditures. Therefore, this paper aims to identify the relationship between health expenditures and maternal and child mortality in Madagascar and the potential bottlenecks in the flow of funds for maternal and child health.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Using panel data, fixed and random effect models for the 22 regions of Madagascar over the period 2010 to 2017 were used. Then bottlenecks related to the flow of funds for maternal and child health were identified.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The results reveal that, on the one hand, funding for maternal health, mainly constituted by equipment endowments for health facilities, significantly contributes to the improvement of maternal health (-0.35; p-value = 0.00). On the other hand, child health financing, often realized through transfers of funds to the health system, does not affect children's health (0.22; p-value = 0.88). The bottleneck analysis illustrates that the transferred funds can suffer from delay or misappropriation and only few parts reach beneficiaries.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Equipment endowments contributed more to health improvement and would be more effective than monetary financing.</p>","PeriodicalId":46936,"journal":{"name":"Health Economics Review","volume":"13 1","pages":"47"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7000,"publicationDate":"2023-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10583307/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Health Economics Review","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13561-023-00462-7","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Previous studies have argued that the relationship between health expenditures and health outcomes is more significant among the poor than the non-poor. However, public spending alone does not improve health status. Quality of governance is considered not only as an important determinant of health outcomes but also of the efficiency of public expenditure on health. In low-income countries, barriers to quality service provision can be observed, which may explain the effects of health expenditures. Therefore, this paper aims to identify the relationship between health expenditures and maternal and child mortality in Madagascar and the potential bottlenecks in the flow of funds for maternal and child health.
Methods: Using panel data, fixed and random effect models for the 22 regions of Madagascar over the period 2010 to 2017 were used. Then bottlenecks related to the flow of funds for maternal and child health were identified.
Results: The results reveal that, on the one hand, funding for maternal health, mainly constituted by equipment endowments for health facilities, significantly contributes to the improvement of maternal health (-0.35; p-value = 0.00). On the other hand, child health financing, often realized through transfers of funds to the health system, does not affect children's health (0.22; p-value = 0.88). The bottleneck analysis illustrates that the transferred funds can suffer from delay or misappropriation and only few parts reach beneficiaries.
Conclusions: Equipment endowments contributed more to health improvement and would be more effective than monetary financing.
期刊介绍:
Health Economics Review is an international high-quality journal covering all fields of Health Economics. A broad range of theoretical contributions, empirical studies and analyses of health policy with a health economic focus will be considered for publication. Its scope includes macro- and microeconomics of health care financing, health insurance and reimbursement as well as health economic evaluation, health services research and health policy analysis. Further research topics are the individual and institutional aspects of health care management and the growing importance of health care in developing countries.