Abbreviated Name:
General government expenditure on health as % of general government expenditure
Indicator Name:
General government expenditure on health as % of general government expenditure
Domain:
Health System Response/ Health financing
Related Terms:
Total health expenditure (THE), General Government expenditure (GGE), General government expenditure on health (GGHE)
Definition:
Level of general government expenditure on health (GGHE) expressed as a percentage of total expenditure on health (THE)
Measurment Method:
National health accounts (NHA) indicators are based on expenditure information collected within an internationally recognized framework. In this indicator resources are tracked for all public entities acting as financing agents: managing health funds and purchasing or paying for health goods and services. The NHA strategy is to track records of transactions, without double counting and in order to reaching a comprehensive coverage. Specially, it aims to be consolidated not to double count government transfers to social security and extrabudgetary funds. Monetary and non monetary transactions are accounted for at purchasers' value. Guides to producing national health accounts exist. (OECD, 2000; WHO-World Bank-USAID, 2003).
Numerator:
Sum of all current expenditure on health (12-month period).
Denominator
Gross domestic product.
Estimation method:
In countries where the fiscal year begins in July, expenditure data have been allocated to the later calendar year (for example, 2008 data will cover the fiscal year 200708), unless otherwise stated for the country. These data are generated from sources that WHO has been collecting for over ten years. The most comprehensive and consistent data on health financing is generated from national health accounts. Not all countries have or update national health accounts and in these instances, data is obtained through technical contacts in-country or from publicly-available documents and reports and harmonized to the NHA framework. Missing values are estimated using various accounting techniques depending on the data available for each country. The principal international references used are the EUROSTAT database, International Monetary Fund (IMF), government financial statistics and international financial statistics; OECD health data; and the United Nations national accounts statistics. National sources include National health accounts (NHA) reports, national accounts (NA) reports, general government (GG) accounts, public expenditure reviews (PER), government expenditure by purpose reports (COFOG), institutional reports of public entities involved in health care provision or financing, notably social security and other health insurance compulsory agencies and Ministry of Finance (MoF) reports. Other possible data sources include executed budget and financing reports of social security and health insurance compulsory schemes, central bank reports, academic studies, reports and data provided by central statistical offices and ministries, statistical yearbooks and other periodicals, and on official web sites. WHO sends estimates to the respective Ministries of Health every year for validation.
Disaggregation:
Financing source institutional unit, disease, main type of care, main type of provider, socioeconomic status, subnational level
Primary data sources:
National Health Accounts (NHA)- Public Expenditure Reviews (PER)
Alternate data sources:
Administrative reporting, Special studies
Measurment frequency:
Annual