By Judith Ugwumadu | 3 June 2014

Public healthcare spending in Latin America has not kept pace with demand and governments in the region will face financial burdens over the next decade, the Inter-American Development Bank has warned.

Analysing healthcare benefit plans in seven countries – Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay – the bank projected that public healthcare spending would rise by between 1 and 1.5 percentage points of gross domestic product over the next 20 years.

The bank said a greater prevalence of chronic illnesses, ageing populations and new healthcare technologies were increasing medical costs and placing more pressure on health spending.

But growth in resources for healthcare had been only ‘moderate’ in Latin America, with spending on healthcare as a proportion of GDP rising slowly from 3.4% to 4.1% in the past 15 years.

The IDB noted that guaranteeing the right to health care for all was a goal that every society desired to achieve, particularly in a region as unequal as Latin America. It acknowledged that universal coverage was an important objective for most countries but was difficult to attain, as the pressure on health spending mounts with each passing day.

However, public resources set aside for health spending in developed nations are, at 7.9% of GDP, on average double the amount Latin American countries devote to health.

Ferdinando Regalia, head of the IDB’s social protection and health division, said: ‘The growing gaps between available financial resources and what it would cost governments to ensure health care services that benefit people the most, and how to do so, is one of the biggest challenges of public policy.

‘Explicit benefit plans are not limited to lists of prioritised services, and they require significant, systematic and continuous methodological efforts from robust institutions and, last but not least, a sustained political commitment to turn priorities into reality. If this occurs, benefit plans may become the cornerstone of universal coverage.’

The bank suggested that better financial planning and greater efficiency in the management of healthcare systems would help to improve coverage over the next decade.