What Are Health Accounts?

The terms "health accounts" (HA) and "national health accounts" (NHA) are broadly used to refer to the different kinds of analytical approaches for estimating economic and financial indicators describing health expenditure (HE), and the financing, production, and consumption of health care goods and services. These approaches estimate economic and financial indicators used in financial planning and management, as well as assess the economic dimensions of heath, health care service activities, and performance of national health care systems.

The estimates generated during an HA exercise can help policymakers determine the level of efficiency of the health care system, and identify areas of under- or over-spending. Time trends in HA can demonstrate the impact of policy initiatives on public and private spending and productivity of the sector, and comparisons across countries can help to create valuable knowledge about how health care resources can be used most effectively.

HA for individual countries were originally developed using ad hoc methods, but over the past 10 years the methodology has become more standardized, particularly in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries. Increasingly, developing countries are seeking to use and adapt standard methods to generate reliable and valid estimates of HE. Donor agencies, development banks, and international technical agencies support this effort, believing that better information yields better policy.

Please proceed to the Health Accounts Approaches and Standard Methods pages to learn more about the available accounts approaches. If you have a question about health accounts, please contact us to communicate with one of several specialists in the field of health accounts.

Documents

PAHO Health Accounts and National Health Accounts - Executive Summary 180 KB, PDF This executive summary describes PAHO's Health Systems and Policies Unit's work in the area of health accounts.

WHO 2002 Guidelines for Enhancing Country NHA Templates 24 KB, PDF The document describes ratios, levels, and estimates included in the World Health Report 2000. The information is derived from a template of the NHA-WHO Unit, containing data collated from accessible reports, journals, supplemented by in-house statistical work.

National Expenditure on Health - Selected Variables, 1995 - 2000 44 KB, PDF Tables listing LAC countries' expenditures on health for the years 1995 to 2000. Please see in relation to the WHO National Health Accounts 2002 document above.

Organizations

WHO National Health Accounts Website This informative resource is devoted to health accounts as seen from the WHO perspective; it includes individual country information from around the world.

WHO Evidence for Policy National Health Accounts Webpage WHO South-East Asia health accounts resource, whose objective is to support countries in their efforts to enhance national capacity and capability in health planning and management and to strengthen country health information systems.

World Bank Health Systems Development NHA Webpage This web page was designed to provide essential resources on health accounts to Bank employees and the public. These include annotated bibliographies for key and supplementary readings, links to the websites of organizations engaged in related work, and suggestions about how to search libraries, the Internet and other databases for more information.

IMF Quarterly National Accounts Manual The IMF manual was drafted to help countries establish or strengthen quarterly national accounts that meet users needs. It has been designed for accounts compilers who have a knowledge of national accounting concepts and methods in an annual context and are in the process of introducing or improving a Quarterly National Accounts system.

PHRplus Health Accounts Webpage Resources on health accounts collected by the PHRplus Project (including definitions and explanations)

National Health Accounts of Mexico Website This bilingual website explains health accounts as well as provides information about advances in this area in Mexico.

United Kingdom National Statistics - Health Accounts Webpage National Statistics is developing Health Accounts for the UK on an experimental basis according to the methodology and rules developed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Australia National Health and Welfare Accounts Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's report describing the history and characteristics of Australia's health accounts. Of particular interest is the section 2 of the report describing Australia's adaptation of the satellite accounts methodology, that allows it to integrate health accounts with its National Accounts.