Pandemic Preparedness and Public Health Expenditure

Abstract

The motive behind this article is investigating alternative indicator measures for the effectiveness of public health expenditure on pandemic preparedness, to explain the reasons behind country variations in containing crises such as Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The purpose is to analyse the shortcomings in the relationship between global public health expenditure and pandemic preparedness. The research methodology includes a macro-analysis of global health spending patterns, empirical and theoretical literature on global health expenditure, global health security indexes, and country case studies pre- and post-crisis. The results show that gaps in pandemic preparedness were already existent pre-COVID-19, calling for a new mind-set in the way public health expenditure is structured. Healthcare sustainability indicators should transition from traditional measures such as economic growth rates, public health expenditure rates, revenue coming from the healthcare sector, and rankings in the global health security index, to new awareness indicators. Public health expenditure, a facilitator of pandemic preparedness, coupled with the resilience of healthcare systems, could be used in conjunction with the traditional factors, along with the time element of a quick response to pandemic through preparedness schemes, the progress towards achieving sustainable health through the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and investment in national healthcare capital to ensure efficient resource allocation. The policy recommendations are the restructuring of public expenditure to expand the absorptive capacities of healthcare institutes, eventually leading to sustainability and universal health insurance.

Stock Market Reactions to COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak: Quantitative Evidence from ARDL Bounds Tests and Granger Causality Analysis

“…A suitable clinical stream is vital so as to ensure a reliable supervision of patients [92]. Rearrangement of public expenditure to enlarge the absorptive volume of healthcare organizations is essential [46]. Therefore, public health expenditures should be increased, along with offering direct income funding to exposed populations via cash transfers, support to affected manufacturing areas and corporations through transient tax cuts, deferral on debt reimbursements, and interim credit lines [3].…”

The Economic Impact of Lockdowns: A Persistent Inoperability Input-Output Approach

“…Extensions on analyzing the impact on supply chain networks across countries (Arto et al 2015;MacKenzie et al 2012;Lei et al 2019;Yu et al 2020a) may also be explored. This can be coupled with the reassessment of public health expenditure programs (Eissa 2020) in managing the impact of the pandemic on the economy. Further research should be done to estimate the impact of social security programs and stimulus packages of governments to ensure minimal impact on the welfare of their citizens.…”

Dynamics of Public Spending on Health and Socio-Economic Development in the European Union: An Analysis from the Perspective of the Sustainable Development Goals

“…An interesting study on the changes brought about by advances in research in a sample of 23 European and OECD countries for the period 2009–2017 concludes that such investment is transformed into improvements in quality of life, finding that happiness, national wealth and health spending are the factors with the greatest influence on the European population’s perception of health [ 78 ]. It also indicates that it is necessary to be prepared to deal with any type of pandemic, such as the one we are currently experiencing, relying on the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and investment in health care capital to ensure an efficient allocation of resources in the public health system [ 77 , 78 ]. However, any intervention that focuses on growing the economy in a sustainable and durable way must be accompanied by interventions that compensate for commitments to health, safety and the environment.…”