HEALTH expenditures made by households were nearly twice as large as the government’s spending, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Based on data from the 2018 Philippine National Health Accounts (PNHA), total out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses grew 10.5 percent to P449.171 billion in 2018, said the PSA.
This accounted for 58.6
percent of the P766.86 billion total health expenditures (THE) made by the
government, corporations,
households, bilateral and multilateral donors, and other sources of funding
last year.
“Total health expenditures at current prices grew by 8.3 percent in 2018 amounting to P799.1 billion from P737.8 billion in 2017. It contributed 4.6 percent to the gross domestic product [GDP],” PSA said.
PSA said household spending increased by 10.5 percent in 2018 from P406.53 billion in 2017, and 19.52 percent from the P375.81 billion posted in 2016.
With an estimated population of 106.6 million in 2018, this translates to a per-capita spending by households of P4,213.619.
This was an 8.73-percent growth from the per-capita household spending of P3,875.427 in 2017 when there were 104.9 million Filipinos.
The per-capita spending of households is also more than half the cost paid by the country for all Filipinos in 2018.
Data showed that on a per-capita basis using THE, the country spent a total of P7,496 per person in 2018, a 6.6-percent growth from P6,391 per person in 2017.
PSA said more than half of OOP or 50.1 percent—amounting to P206.7 billion—were spent on pharmacies while hospitals received the second-largest amount of OOP, at P148.8 billion.
The bulk of hospital expenditures went to private general hospitals, at P108 billion; followed by providers of ambulatory health care at P55.7 billion, or 13.5 percent and providers of ancillary services at P1.7 billion or less than 1 percent.
Meanwhile, the PNHA data showed government spent P228.86 billion in 2018, accounting for 29.8 percent of THE. This was a 12.7-percent growth compared to the P203.127 billion posted in 2017.
Other sources of health spending are corporations; bilateral and multilateral donors; and unspecified institutional units providing revenues to financing schemes.
Data showed expenses
made through unspecified institutional units providing revenues to
financing schemes reached P62.892 billion in 2018, accounting for 8.2 percent
of THE.
This represented growth of 51.8 percent from P41.436 billion in 2017 and 34.84 percent higher than the P46.642 billion in 2016.
The spending of corporations for health also grew 8.2 percent to P20.114 billion in 2018 from P18.582 billion in 2017, and 2.06 percent from P19.708 billion in 2016.
However, health expenditures from the rest of the world or bilateral and multilateral donors amounted to only P5.822 billion in 2018.
This represented a 68.1-percent contraction from P18.231 billion in 2017 and 60.67 percent from P14.802 billion in 2016.
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