| dc.description.abstract | The title of the project is the determinant of household health expenditure in Tanzania. The main objective of this paper was to analyze the determinants of 'household health expenditure in Tanzania. The analysis was conducted using data from household budget survey for 2007 and the model applied was an Ordinary Least Square model. From the analysis our results was as follows; Income was found to be the main determinant of household health care spending in Tanzania. The coefficient on income was statistically significant and had a negative sign, meaning that it is negatively related to household health expenditure.
On the other hand one percent increase in income reduces health care spending by 0.14 percent. Other determinants of household health care expenditure include type of sickness, education of household head, household size, and household age structure. The implication of this finding is that the kind of health care service commonly available to households in Tanzania is an inferior good whereby its consumption falls as income rises. That is, as household incomes rise, households will shift away from the services being presently consumed to other types of services.
Failure to plan for a shift of this kind would mean that the health facilities providing the inferior services would be underutilized. Based on these findings, the main policy recommendation is that, the government should promote public awareness on the importance of health care so that even the low income earners can have less spending on healthcare, since they will be able to live healthy life and take precaution before disease outbreak.
Further, the government should improve the living environment in urban areas so that people residing in urban areas can enjoy clean environment where disease transmission through poor sanitation is much reduced. Moreover, awareness to families about public health issues such as immunization of children, especially families headed by males is needed because these issues should not be the responsibility of females alone. | en_US |
