Equity in Health Care Expenditure in Nigeria

Type Journal Article - International Journal of Finance & Banking Studies
Title Equity in Health Care Expenditure in Nigeria
Author(s)
Volume 2
Issue 3
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2013
Page numbers 76-88
URL http://www.ssbfnet.com/ojs/index.php/ijfbs/article/view/170
Abstract
Equity isone of the basic principles of health systems and features explicitly in theNigerian health financing policy. Despite acclaimed commitment to theimplementation of this policy through various pro-poor health programmes andinterventions, the level of inequity in health status and access to basichealth care interventions remain high. This paper examines the equity of healthcare expenditure by individuals in Nigeria. The paper evaluated equity in out-of-pocketspending( OOP) for the country and separately for the six geopolitical zones ofthe country.The methodological framework rests onKakwani Progressivity Indices (KPIs), ReynoldSmolensky indices andconcentration indices (CIs) using data from the 2004 Nigerian National LivingStandard Survey( NLSS) collected by the National Bureau of Statistics. .The results reveal that health financing isregressive with the incidence disproportionately rest on poor households withabout 70% of the total expenditure on health is through out-of-pocket paymentsby households. Poor households are prone to bear most of the expenses in theevent of any health shock. The catastrophic consequences thus push some intopoverty, and aggravate the poverty of others.The paper therefore suggests that thecountry’s health financingsystems must be designed not only to allow people to access services when theyare needed, but must also protect household, from financial catastrophe, byreducing OOP spending through risk pooling and prepayment schemes within thehealth system

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