Yemen national health accounts estimate for 2003

While it builds upon the first round NHA estimates carried out for 1998, it has adapted to the Yemeni context the NHA methodology prescribed in the Guide to Producing National Health Accounts, with application for low-income and middle income countries (World Health Organization et al. 2003). The 2003 NHA estimates benefit from the Public Health Expenditure Review for 1999 through 2003 that was completed in 2005, and from results of the 2004 Census. But there has not been an updated household survey since 1998 that would have provided more accurate data that the extrapolated (interim) estimates made for 2003 household spending. The findings of the NHA estimates for 2003 are that total health spending for health by Yemen for 2003 amounted to YR 117.3 billion, or US$639 million. This spending averaged YR 6,128, or US$33.40, per capita. Government spending on health was the equivalent of about 4.9 percent of total government spending. Total health spending comprised about 5.6 percent of gross domestic product. As original sources of funds for health, household out-of-pocket (OOP) spending on health accounted for 60 percent of the total, government spending accounted for 32 percent of the total, and the rest of the world (donors) accounted for the remaining 8 percent of the total spent on health. The 2003 NHA estimates have filled in some of the gaps in the 1998 NHA estimates. Most notable is the significant increase in the estimate of OOP household spending on overseas treatment, which for 2003 was estimated, according to a survey, to be almost half of total OOP household spending. It is expected that the household survey planned for 2006 will provide more precise and reliable data on household spending for the third round of NHA estimates. (Author abstract)