Republic of Mauritius- International Workshop focuses on Health Financing and Health Economics

In his address on the occasion, the Director General Health Services, Dr Sivalingum Ramen, highlighted that health is increasingly recognised as a key aspect of human and economic development adding that countries all over the world are making investments to improve health services in order to achieve sustainable development goals including, universal health coverage. To this end, he said, financial resources are needed, as well as funds to set up and maintain health infrastructure, and medical equipment and hospital disposables.

He recalled that the African region has amongst the greatest burden of disease in the world, but has the lowest available per capita budget for health care, hence the need for applied health economics.  Health economics, he emphasised, aims at producing analysis to inform decision-making in the allocation of resources in health policy design and to cost effective interventions.

On that score, he underpinned the importance of managing health resources through economic analysis in order to decrease the incidence of morbidity, mortality and disability, and eventually produce better outcomes in the health service.  Health economics take into account issues such as cost-effectiveness and cost–benefit, demand and supply of health care, budgeting and regulation mechanisms affecting provider performance and monitoring the national health system to accelerate gains in health, he observed. 

Furthermore, Dr Ramen indicated that the health sector has become the main sector of the global economy linked to economic growth, demographic change and technological change, and that global spending on health is increasing every year.  It is estimated that in 2016, the world spent USD 7.5 trillion on health, and that health expenditure stands at 8.2 % of GDP in high income countries and 6.3 % in low income countries.  

Speaking about the situation in Mauritius, he indicated that Government recognises health as a human right as it forms part within the sustainable development agenda of the country.  He added that free health services ranging from primary health scare to specialised health services are provided to all citizens alike.  The government of Mauritius, he said, is making significant investment in health care services, with an increase of 42.4 % in governmental expenditure over the past five years, and with an average of Rs 10, 351 per capita budget for health care. He also indicated that following considerable improvement in health services, life expectancy has improved while infant mortality premature morbidity and mortality rates have decreased.

The workshop

The workshop will serve as a process of knowledge exchange and as an opportunity for participants with economic backgrounds to connect and share ideas and experiences on the application of health economics.

The ECSA Health Economics Community of Practice will provide an environment for health economists in the region within Government, academia and other nongovernmental organisations to share knowledge and experience of the challenges of designing and implementing resource allocation and advising policy-makers. There will be sharing of perspectives on key health policy issues in the region as well as training on the development of health benefits packages and resource allocation frameworks.