| dc.description.abstract | This research paper analyses the impact of health expenditures on key health indicators in
Kenya over the period 1975-2004. The study estimates the aggregate health production
function. T he variables used a re government health expenditures p ercapita, percentage
private health expenditures, expenditures on education percapita, percentage population
with access to safe water, under five-mortality rate and life expectancy.
The study attributes the declining health indicators to insufficient spending by the
government and the inadequacies of the private health sector in financing health care in
Kenya. The main objective was to statistically test the nature and the significance of the
relationship between health indicators and health expenditures.
The findings of the study indicate a strong contribution to health indicators by the health
expenditures both private and public, access to safe water and education. The influences
of the services that are dependent to consumer demand are more difficult to identify both
for preventive services, such as immunization and for curative medical care.
The study recommends that the resources must be channeled towards primary and
preventive health care as well as boosting the private health sector. It recommends that
the government should s top directing more resources to areas with no direct effect on
social welfare. The government should encourage the role of local authorities in
education and health and this should be clearly denied. The private health care provision
should also be streamlined and regulated by the government so as to act as checks and
balances in their role 0 f health care provision. T he government should specifically do
something about the supply - induced demand common in private health sector that leads
to the consumers being exploited and thus worsening health indicators. | en |
