Health care financing studies in sub-Saharan Africa at both country and cross-national
levels have tended to focus on single modes of financing at a time, such as user fees, insurance,
government budget, external aid, or on financing-related issues such as equity and quality of care.
Relatively few attempts have been made in the literature to analyze total national health financing
from all sources and to relate them to their various uses. This study uses the broader framework of
National Health Accounts (NHA) to analyze national health expenditures in Cameroon. It is argued
that this is a useful framework for answering basic health financing questions and for highlighting
policy issues which may otherwise not be evident using more narrowly-focused approaches.