The National Health Accounts of the Philippines: Continuing Development and New Findings

For more than a decade now, the national health accounts (NHA) of the Philippines has been providing data that are important for health policymaking. At present, the NHA not only continues to be important for health policymaking. It has also become indispensable as a tool for monitoring and tracking outcomes of health sector policies. To further expand its usefulness, the Philippine NHA underwent major restructuring, specifically in the classification of health expenditures by uses of funds. The revised NHA now includes several types of breakdown by uses of funds. Analysis of preliminary 2003 estimates of the revised NHA matrices reveals new details of the manner by which health funds are utilized in the Philippines--data that are not available in the original NHA.