SAHR 2007 - Health Systems Trust

Authors:
Di McIntyre i
Michael Thiede i
3
Health Care Financing
and Expenditure
Abstract
This chapter provides an overview of health care financing and expenditure in South Africa.
It reviews total health care expenditure in 2005, as well as recent trends in spending in the
public and private health sectors. While public sector health care expenditure has been
relatively stagnant in real per capita terms over the last decade, expenditure in the private
sector has continued increasing at rates far exceeding the rate of inflation despite medical
schemes covering a declining share of the population. Differentials in the public-private
health sector, in terms of the financial and human resources available in each sector relative
to the population served, have increased dramatically. It is critical that these diverging
trends be urgently addressed, both through increased tax funding of public sector services
and efforts to promote improved efficiency within the private health sector.
i
Health Economics Unit, University of Cape Town
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