Economic Evaluations of Health Financing Programs

Abstract For several decades Cameroon’s healthcare system has faced a multitude of challenges. These challenges are associated with observed shifts in the country’s demographic profile, epidemiology, lifestyle, technological advances, and environment change. Health outcomes are among the poorest in the world. Cameroon’s medical infrastructure and available human resources fail to meet the demand for care. Public financing accounts for only 3% of the national budget, thus Cameroonians spend large shares of their household budget on healthcare. Cameroon has benefited from national and international financial support for healthcare. This has helped establish 31 healthcare financing programmes (HFP) in Cameroon. This chapter reviews the practice of economic and efficiency evaluations of HFP in Cameroon. It also presents the main challenges faced when conducting these assessments. The chapter stresses the need for continuous monitoring and evaluation of Cameroon’s healthcare sector financing, both in the current COVID-19 pandemic as well as in the post-pandemic period. Such critical appraisal of current HFP is necessary to achieve optimal, effective, efficient and sustainable investment that can promote healthcare for the Cameroonian population over the long term.