Health Financing and Health Outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa: A PLS-SEM Application

Abstract

This study investigated the effect and relationship between health financing and health outcomes in SubSaharan African, using current data spanning between 2000 and 2015. The study adopted, the Partial Least Square (SEM) Structural equation Modelling a multidimensional estimation method and the Grossman theory on demand for health to examine the interactions between health financing and health outcomes in 25 sampled Sub-Saharan African countries. The study found a negative and statistically significant relationship between health financing and health outcomes. The result of the study indicates that health financing proxy by both public and private health expenditure has both direct and indirect effect on health outcomes measured by under- five mortality rate, maternal mortality rate and life expectancy at birth in SSA. The direct effect is greater than the indirect effect. The direct effect of health financing is on health outcomes and demographic dividend measure by both young and old dependency ratios. The indirect effect is on both primary and secondary school enrolment, and dependency ratio. This is contributed by poor health outcomes. Findings of the study has revealed that government in the region could improve on the poor heath outcomes by increasing their annual budget allocation to the health sector