Health Expenditure And Health Outcomes In East And Southern Africa: Does Governance Matter?

Good health is important at both individual and macroeconomic levels, and improving health outcomes remains a noble goals as enshrined in Sustainable Development Goals. Generalized Method of Moments is used to examine the relationship between health expenditure and health outcomes and the role of governance in the effectiveness of health expenditure on health outcomes in 18 East and Southern African countries. The study results indicate that total, private and public health expenditure significantly reduce infant mortality, maternal mortality and under-five mortality rate, but increase in life expectancy significantly. Both public health expenditure and private health expenditure have the same impact on health outcomes. However, public health expenditure has a higher impact on health outcomes compared to private health expenditure. In addition, the study results show that poor governance adversely affects health outcomes, and also undermines the effectiveness of public health expenditure on health outcomes. The results suggest the need for governments to increase health spending levels to improve populace health.