Efficiency of public and private expenditure on health in Latin American countries: 2000-2015

Abstract

The expenditure that countries make on health systems is related to public health indicators, which include child survival rates and life expectancy, so this relationship can be considered a measure of the efficiency of the health system for each country. This article develops a retrospective descriptive research on health systems. The sample is made up of 19 Latin American countries, and for each country the efficiency of health expenditure was evaluated by means of an enveloping analysis of data oriented towards outputs with delimited variables. The variables used are: public expenditure on health, private expenditure on health, life expectancy and survival rate (neonatal, under 5 years). This information was taken from the World Health Organization and World Bank data repositories.

The results of the research indicate that total expenditure on health presents an average annual growth rate of 5.5% and mortality rates (at 5 years and neonatal) were reduced by 41% and 33% respectively. The efficiency of health spending ranged from 90% to 100%. The group formed by Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Jamaica and Nicaragua are the benchmarks in health spending, with respect to child survival rates and life expectancy according to the results of efficiency during the study period.