Financial resources for health are unevenly distributed geographically. Australia and Japan have higher health expenditure per capita than the OECD average (USD 3715, 2015), while most of Asia/Pacific economies spend less than the Asia/Pacific average (USD 1 120). On average across the Asia/Pacific, two thirds of health expenditure is financed by governments or compulsory insurance schemes, and the rest is financed from voluntary schemes or concerns patients’ out-of-pocket expenses (Figure 6.10). More than three‐quarters of total health expenditure in Brunei Darussalam, Japan, New Zealand, and Thailand were financed publicly in 2015, while in countries with a lower GDP per capita such as Bangladesh, India, Myanmar and Nepal three-quarters of total health expenditure were financed privately.
For most Asia/Pacific economies, health expenditure per capita grew over last decade (Figure 6.11). On average the Asia/Pacific economies experienced annual growth in real health expenditure per capita of 6% over the 2006-10 and 2011-15 periods, while annual growth in real health among OECD economies was less than 4%. Armenia and Myanmar had the largest annual average spending growth of more than 30% over the 2011-15 period, while Azerbaijan, China, India, Lao PDR, Nepal, Singapore and Tajikistan also recorded growth in excess of 10%. By contrast in Cambodia, New Zealand and Samoa health expenditure increased by less than the OECD average (3.7%) over the same period.
Although health expenditure per capita grew steadily, the public/private health financing ratios are relatively stable for most Asia/Pacific countries (Figure 6.12). Over the 2011-15 period health expenditure financed by government/compulsory schemes increased in Singapore, China, and Indonesia, while in Mongolia and Viet Nam saw an increase in the share of health-financing through voluntary health schemes and households’ out-of-pocket expenditures.
