Coping with poverty in the health sector: Evidence from public spending in Thailand

This paper examines whether an increase in government expenditure on health has been accompanied by greater equality between the poor and non-poor in Thailand. In the period 1992-2000, real government expenditure grew on average 10 per cent per annum, the number of health services personnel and facilities increased and the rise was far greater than the growth in population or incomes per capita. However, in the distribution of public resources on health the bottom quintile of the population received disproportionately less government spending. The widening inequality between the poor and non-poor could partly be explained by large differences in the mix of health resources used by each province in the country over time and the associated costs involved. These phenomena imply that improving equity in public health care provision needs to be given higher priority in Government spending.