Cited by 165Global Health Care IssuesInternational Development and AidHealthcare Systems and Reforms

Tracking development assistance for health and for COVID-19: a review of development assistance, government, out-of-pocket, and other private spending on health for 204 countries and territories, 1990–2050

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Micah, Angela E, Cogswell, Ian E, Cunningham, Brandon, Ezoe, Satoshi, Harle, Anton C, Maddison, Emilie R, McCracken, Darrah, Nomura, Shuhei +405 more·2021·The Lancet

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The rapid spread of COVID-19 renewed the focus on how health systems across the globe are financed, especially during public health emergencies. Development assistance is an important source of health financing in many low-income countries, yet little is known about how much of this funding was disbursed for COVID-19. We aimed to put development assistance for health for COVID-19 in the context of broader trends in global health financing, and to estimate total health spending from 1995 to 2050 and development assistance for COVID-19 in 2020. METHODS: We estimated domestic health spending and development assistance for health to generate total health-sector spending estimates for 204 countries and territories. We leveraged data from the WHO Global Health Expenditure Database to produce estimates of domestic health spending. To generate estimates for development assistance for health, we relied on project-level disbursement data from the major international development agencies' online databases and annual financial statements and reports for information on income sources. To adjust our estimates for 2020 to include disbursements related to COVID-19, we extracted project data on commitments and disbursements from a broader set of databases (because not all of the data sources used to estimate the historical series extend to 2020), including the UN Office of Humanitarian Assistance Financial Tracking Service and the International Aid Transparency Initiative. We reported all the historic and future spending estimates in inflation-adjusted 2020 US$, 2020 US$ per capita, purchasing-power parity-adjusted US$ per capita, and as a proportion of gross domestic product. We used various models to generate future health spending to 2050. FINDINGS: In 2019, health spending globally reached $8·8 trillion (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 8·7-8·8) or $1132 (1119-1143) per person. Spending on health varied within and across income groups and geographical regions. Of this total, $40·4 billion (0·5%, 95% UI 0·5-0·5) was development assistance for health provided to low-income and middle-income countries, which made up 24·6% (UI 24·0-25·1) of total spending in low-income countries. We estimate that $54·8 billion in development assistance for health was disbursed in 2020. Of this, $13·7 billion was targeted toward the COVID-19 health response. $12·3 billion was newly committed and $1·4 billion was repurposed from existing health projects. $3·1 billion (22·4%) of the funds focused on country-level coordination and $2·4 billion (17·9%) was for supply chain and logistics. Only $714·4 million (7·7%) of COVID-19 development assistance for health went to Latin America, despite this region reporting 34·3% of total recorded COVID-19 deaths in low-income or middle-income countries in 2020. Spending on health is expected to rise to $1519 (1448-1591) per person in 2050, although spending across countries is expected to remain varied. INTERPRETATION: Global health spending is expected to continue to grow, but remain unequally distributed between countries. We estimate that development organisations substantially increased the amount of development assistance for health provided in 2020. Continued efforts are needed to raise sufficient resources to mitigate the pandemic for the most vulnerable, and to help curtail the pandemic for all. FUNDING: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

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Micah, A. E., Cogswell, I. E., Cunningham, B., Ezoe, S., Harle, A. C., Maddison, E. R., McCracken, D., Nomura, S., Simpson, K. E., Stutzman, H. N., Tsakalos, G., Wallace, L. E., Zhao, Y., Zende, R. R., Abbafati, C., Abdelmasseh, M., Abedi, A., Abegaz, K. H., Abhilash, E. S., Abolhassani, H., Abrigo, M. R. M., Adhikari, T. B., Afzal, S., Ahinkorah, B. O., Ahmadi, S., Ahmed, H., Ahmed, M. B., Ahmed Rashid, T., Ajami, M., Aji, B., Akalu, Y., Akunna, C. J., Al Hamad, H., Alam, K., Alanezi, F. M., Alanzi, T. M., Alemayehu, Y., Alhassan, R. K., Alinia, C., Aljunid, S. M., Almustanyir, S. A., Alvis-Guzman, N., Alvis-Zakzuk, N. J., Amini, S., Amini-Rarani, M., Amu, H., Ancuceanu, R., Andrei, C. L., Andrei, T., Angell, B., Anjomshoa, M., Antonio, C. A. T., Antony, C. M., Aqeel, M., Arabloo, J., Arab-Zozani, M., Aripov, T., Arrigo, A., Ashraf, T., Atnafu, D. D., Ausloos, M., Avila-Burgos, L., Awan, A. T., Ayano, G., Ayanore, M. A., Azari, S., Azhar, G. S., Babalola, T. K., Bahrami, M. A., Baig, A. A., Banach, M., Barati, N., Bärnighausen, T. W., Barrow, A., Basu, S., Baune, B. T., Bayati, M., Benzian, H., Berman, A. E., Bhagavathula, A. S., Bhardwaj, N., Bhardwaj, P., Bhaskar, S., Bibi, S., Bijani, A., Bodolica, V., Bragazzi, N. L., Braithwaite, D., Breitborde, N. J. K., Breusov, A. V., Briko, N. I., Busse, R., Cahuana-Hurtado, L., Callander, E. J., Cámera, L. A., Castañeda-Orjuela, C. A., Catalá-López, F., Charan, J., Chatterjee, S., Chattu, S. K., Chattu, V. K., Chen, S., Cicero, A. F. G., Dadras, O., Dahlawi, S. M. A., Dai, X., Dalal, K., Dandona, L., Dandona, R., Davitoiu, D. V., De Neve, J.-W., de Sá-Junior, A. R., Denova-Gutiérrez, E., Dhamnetiya, D., Dharmaratne, S. D., Doshmangir, L., Dube, J., Ehsani-Chimeh, E., El Sayed Zaki, M., El Tantawi, M., Eskandarieh, S., Farzadfar, F., Ferede, T. Y., Fischer, F., Foigt, N. A., Freitas, A., Friedman, S. D., Fukumoto, T., Fullman, N., Gaal, P. A., Gad, M. M., Garcia-Gordillo, M., Garg, T., Ghafourifard, M., Ghashghaee, A., Gholamian, A., Gholamrezanezhad, A., Ghozali, G., Gilani, S. A., Glăvan, I.-R., Glushkova, E. V., Goharinezhad, S., Golechha, M., Goli, S., Guha, A., Gupta, V. B., Gupta, V. K., Haakenstad, A., Haider, M. R., Hailu, A., Hamidi, S., Hanif, A., Harapan, H., Hartono, R. K., Hasaballah, A. I., Hassan, S., Hassanein, M. H., Hayat, K., Hegazy, M. I., Heidari, G., Hendrie, D., Heredia-Pi, I., Herteliu, C., Hezam, K., Holla, R., Hossain, S. J., Hosseinzadeh, M., Hostiuc, S., Huda, T. M., Hwang, B.-F., Iavicoli, I., Idrisov, B., Ilesanmi, O. S., Irvani, S. S. N., Islam, S. M. S., Ismail, N. E., Isola, G., Jahani, M. A., Jahanmehr, N., Jakovljevic, M., Janodia, M. D., Javaheri, T., Jayapal, S. K., Jayawardena, R., Jazayeri, S. B., Jha, R. P., Jonas, J. B., Joo, T., Joukar, F., Jürisson, M., Kaambwa, B., Kalhor, R., Kanchan, T., Kandel, H., Karami Matin, B., Karimi, S. E., Kassahun, G., Kayode, G. A., Kazemi Karyani, A., Keikavoosi-Arani, L., Khader, Y. S., Khajuria, H., Khalilov, R., Khammarnia, M., Khan, J., Khubchandani, J., Kianipour, N., Kim, G. R., Kim, Y. J., Kisa, A., Kisa, S., Kohler, S., Kosen, S., Koteeswaran, R., Koulmane Laxminarayana, S. L., Koyanagi, A., Krishan, K., Kumar, G. A., Kusuma, D., Lamnisos, D., Lansingh, V. C., Larsson, A. O., Lasrado, S., Le, L. K. D., Lee, S. W. H., Lee, Y. Y., Lim, S. S., Lobo, S. W., Lozano, R., Magdy Abd El Razek, H., Magdy Abd El Razek, M., Mahdavi, M. M., Majeed, A., Makki, A., Maleki, A., Malekzadeh, R., Manda, A. L., Mansour-Ghanaei, F., Mansournia, M. A., Marrugo Arnedo, C. A., Martinez-Valle, A., Masoumi, S. Z., Maude, R. J., McKee, M., Medina-Solís, C. E., Menezes, R. G., Meretoja, A., Meretoja, T. J., Mesregah, M. K., Mestrovic, T., Milevska Kostova, N., Miller, T. R., Mini, G., Mirica, A., Mirrakhimov, E. M., Mohajer, B., Mohamed, T. A., Mohammadi, M., Mohammadian-Hafshejani, A., Mohammed, S., Moitra, M., Mokdad, A. H., Molokhia, M., Moni, M. A., Moradi, Y., Morze, J., Mousavi, S. M., Mpundu-Kaambwa, C., Muriithi, M. K., Muthupandian, S., Nagarajan, A. J., Naimzada, M. D., Nangia, V., Naqvi, A. A., Narayana, A. I., Nascimento, B. R., Naveed, M., Nayak, B. P., Nazari, J., Ndejjo, R., Negoi, I., Neupane Kandel, S., Nguyen, T. H., Nonvignon, J., Noubiap, J. J., Nwatah, V. E., Oancea, B., Ojelabi, F. A. O., Olagunju, A. T., Olakunde, B. O., Olgiati, S., Olusanya, J. O., Onwujekwe, O. E., Otoiu, A., Otstavnov, N., Otstavnov, S. S., Owolabi, M. O., Padubidri, J. R., Palladino, R., Panda-Jonas, S., Park, E.-C., Pashazadeh Kan, F., Pawar, S., Pazoki Toroudi, H., Pereira, D. M., Perianayagam, A., Pesudovs, K., Piccinelli, C., Postma, M. J., Prada, S. I., Rabiee, M., Rabiee, N., Rahim, F., Rahimi-Movaghar, V., Rahman, M. H. U., Rahman, M., Rahmani, A. M., Ram, U., Ranabhat, C. L., Ranasinghe, P., Rao, C. R., Rathi, P., Rawaf, D. L., Rawaf, S., Rawal, L., Rawassizadeh, R., Reiner Jr, R. C., Renzaho, A. M. 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L., Xu, G., Yaya, S., Yazdi-Feyzabadi, V., Yiğit, V., Yip, P., Yirdaw, B. W., Yonemoto, N., Younis, M. Z., Yu, C., Yunusa, I., Zahirian Moghadam, T., Zandian, H., Zastrozhin, M. S., Zastrozhina, A., Zhang, Z.-J., Ziapour, A., Zuniga, Y. M. H., Hay, S. I., Murray, C. J. L., & Dieleman, J. L.
Affiliations
University of Washington (US)
Corresponding author
Micah, Angela E
ORCID
Venue
The Lancet
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2021-10
Volume
398
Issue
10308
Pages
1317-1343
ISSN
  • 0099-5355 (ISSN-L)
  • 0140-6736
OpenAlex
W3199493325
Cited by
162
References
24
Citations by year
2026: 13 · 2025: 30 · 2024: 30 · 2023: 42 · 2022: 43 · 2021: 4
FWCI
6.15
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
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  • The Lancet (publishedVersion, cc-by)
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Funders
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Global Health Care Issues
  • Social Sciences › Development › International Development and Aid
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Finance › Healthcare Systems and Reforms
Keywords
health, COVID-19 pandemic, health care financing, out-of-pocket health expenditure, private health expenditure, public health emergencies, low-income countries, per capita health expenditure, development aid, health system resilience, health infrastructure, health system preparedness
MeSH terms
COVID-19, Developing Countries, Health Expenditures, Financing, Government, Government Programs, Humans, International Agencies, International Cooperation, Global Health, Economic Development, Gross Domestic Product, Healthcare Financing

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