When figuring out how to allocate our financial resources, we more often than not reflect on our expenses to develop a budget ‘well, at least I do’. Some items on the budget list have a more significant portion depending on our various priorities. At a National level, we use the Current Health Expenditure as a share of GDP to indicate the status of resources channelled to health relative to other uses.
What is GDP?
Gross domestic product (GDP) is the standard measure of the value added created through the production of goods and services in a country during a certain period.
As GDP factors in the National outlook of the economy, health spending measures the final consumption of healthcare goods and services (i.e. current health expenditure). This includes personal health care (curative care, rehabilitative care, long-term care, ancillary services and medical goods) and collective services (prevention and public health services as well as health administration), but excluding spending on investments (OECD 2022).
#Data Visualization
plot1 <- ggplot(ea_gdp_19,
aes(x = reorder(country_name,-x2019), y= x2019, fill = reorder(country_name,-x2019)))+
geom_bar(stat = 'identity',show.legend = FALSE)+
scale_fill_manual(values = c("Kenya" = "#FF0000",
"Tanzania" = "#5cac94",
"Uganda" = "#5cac94",
"Rwanda"= "#5cac94",
"Congo, Dem. Rep."= "#5cac94",
"Burundi"= "#5cac94",
"South Sudan"= "#5cac94",
"Ethiopia"= "#5cac94"))+
theme_few()+
theme(axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 45, hjust = 1))+
geom_text(aes(label = paste(format(x2019, nsmall = 2), "%")), vjust = -0.2)+
labs(title="Healthcare Expenditure as Percentage of GDP",
subtitle ="In 2019 in East Africa Countries")+
labs(x = "",
y = "")
#Data Source: WHO
In 2019, health expenditure as a share of GDP for Kenya was 4.6 %. Between 2010 and 2019, health expenditure as a share of GDP in Kenya decreased on average by 2.44% each year, although before that, it grew from 4.6 % in 2000 to 6.1 % in 2010 (knoema 2022).
Trend of Health Expenditure
Health spending shows the importance of the health sector in the whole economy and indicates the societal priority which health is given measured in monetary terms (WHO). This analysis compares Kenya to its neighbours in the East Africa Community.
#Data Visualization
myColours2 = c("#040c04", "#4d372c","#5cac94","#FF0000","#4d3ec0","#acc6d8",
"#24a4d4", "#ca5cdd")
plot2 <- ea_gdp2%>%
mutate(isKenya = (country_name == "Kenya"))%>%
ggplot(aes(x=years, y=gdp, color=country_name))+
geom_line( aes (linetype = isKenya), size =1, alpha = 0.6)+
labs (title = "East Africa Countires Health Expenditure (% of GDP)",
y = "HE (% 0f GDP)",
x = "",
color = "Country")+
scale_x_continuous(breaks = 2009:2019)+
theme_few()+
scale_linetype_manual(values = c ("dashed", "solid"), guide ="none")+
scale_color_manual(values = myColours2)
#Data Source: WHO
In the last two years, the global economy has experienced a backdrop following the Covid-19 virus and now the Ukraine-Russia war. Forecasts for the global economy by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) point to a historic downtown. Such compounding factors force the government to cut down on spending, including health. With many countries trying to adopt Universal Healthcare Coverage, this might prove to be a setback, forcing the government back to the drawing board.