The influence of gender of the household head on health expenditure in Kenya

Abstract

Despite the growing budgetary allocation to health, the majority of the health system's funding continues to be private financing through out-of-pocket expenditure. Recognizing the household headship ‘role’ and the associated responsibility of the economic well-being of the household, this study used data from a recent household survey (KHHEUS 2018) to examine how the gender of the household head affects health spending in Kenya. We especially wanted to accomplish the following three goals: To examine trends in Kenyan household health spending, to investigate the factors that affect spending on healthcare in connection to the gender of the household head while controlling for covariates, and finally to provide policy suggestions based on the study's results. The approach of Ordinary Least Square Estimation was used in the investigation. We investigated significance values at 1%, 5%, and 10%. According to the study's findings, household health spending is positively correlated with a household head's age, gender, household size, work position, educational attainment, place of residence in an urban region, and proximity to a health facility. Conversely, having access to insurance, falling into a lower wealth quintile, and having at least one family member with a chronic illness all had a negative impact on health spending. Based on these findings, the study recommends that the health financing strategy be reviewed and revised to include gender-specific provisions that take into account potential inequalities and inequities caused by gender and how to mitigate them to ensure achievement of formulated UHC targets. Similarly, there should be a conscious effort made to ensure that national campaigns to increase insurance coverage are considering the unique needs of both male and female headed households. Only then can they create advocacy messages that are pertinent and targeted to respective households and thus produce the desired outcomes. The national and county governments need to work in concerted efforts to ensure reduce health expenditure at household level by continuing to avail education to all at higher levels and bringing health care services closer to the households in both rural and urban areas through construction and equipping of additional health facilities