The 2013/14 National budget falls short of promoting access to health facilities by the poor

The 2013/14 National budget falls short of promoting access to health facilities by the poor

Investment in the health sector is considered to be key for a country’s economic development. In 2013/2014 financial year, the government under the health sector will focus on reducing morbidity and mortality from the major causes of ill health and premature death and to reduce the disparities in the provision of health services. To achieve this, a number of interventions have been proposed, some of which include; recruitment of key health personnel to ensure adequate staffing, provision of staff housing for health workers with special attention to under-served areas, and improving the governance and efficiency in health service delivery through joint supervision and monitoring in collaboration with non-Governmental health institutions among others.
In the next financial year, the budget for the health sector is projected to rise from Ushs 852.2billion in FY 2012/13 to 940.4 billion in FY 2013/14, implying an increment of Ushs 88.2billion in nominal terms. Despite the nominal increment, the health sector share proportion of the national budget is projected to decline from 7.8% in 2012/13 to 7.4% next financial year, which is far below the Abuja declaration target of 15%. The increment in the sector budget is largely due to the increase in the recurrent budget which is projected to increase by about Ushs 45.6 billion. This increase is projected to consume over 63% of the sector budget, implying that the administrative costs remain high as a proportion of the sector budget, which is a major concern for the much needed investment required in the sector infrastructure, since less of these resources will be spent on actual service delivery. This perhaps explains why some health indicators are still poor. For instance, deliveries in health centres currently stand at about 40%, still below the 50% HSSIP target for 2011/12, infant and  maternal mortality are still high in the country among others.

With new tax proposals announced by the Finance Minster, the situation in the health sector is likely to worsen especially for those living in rural areas. The proposals to increase excise duty on petrol and diesel by 50/= and the increase in motorcycle registration fees by 70,000/= will affect access to health facilities by rural poor households since it will translate into an increase in bodaboda fares as the tax will be transferred to the final customer. Since boda bodas are the most common means of transport used in most rural areas to transport patients and expectant mothers to health facilities, this will affect access to health facilities by the poor households. Hence, the 88.2billion increment in the health sector is virtually meaningless to communities if they cannot access health facilities.