From oil reliance to financial resilience: have economic sanctions made OPEC countries’ healthcare financing independent from oil?

The OPEC governments mainly financed their budgets by relying on oil production, similar to many other governments globally. However, the world’s ongoing economic development, changes in countries’ political relationships, and exchange of sanctions could have adverse consequences for government financing, including healthcare. This study investigates whether economic sanctions have shifted governments’ healthcare financing from oil dependence. Quantitative data covering 2000 to 2020 were extracted from the WHO and assessed using a comparison of means Welch’s t-test. The results showed the independence of government healthcare financing from oil in Libya, Iraq, and Iran, evident in the absence of a response to changes in their sanctions programs, attributed to their long experience with sanctions. This is in contrast to Venezuela, where governmental healthcare financing was adversely affected after sanctions were imposed. With global economic uncertainty, continuous political changes, and the global transformation to green energy, this study suggests that countries worldwide maintain financing strategies other than dependence on oil, with constant revisions to global developments.