9 Public Spending on Health Care and the Poor

Abstract

A number of national and international initiatives aim to increase pro-poor public spending, particularly in education and health care. A key international program for poverty reduction is the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative launched in 1996. The resources freed up by this debt relief initiative will be significant relative to current levels of expenditure on health care and education (see Gupta et al., 2001). The question is whether the increase in public outlays on health care as a result of new initiatives will necessarily benefit the poor and contribute to significant improvements in health status.

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