Does Public Health Investment Significantly Influence Healthcare Pricing in Nigeria?

Abstract

To combat the issue of health inequality in Nigeria, health care should be a public good in other to eliminate healthcare pricing. To achieve adequate healthcare provision, there is a need for public health investment. It is on this note that this study examines the relationship between public health investment and health care pricing in Nigeria from 1985 to 2019. Michael Grossman's health
production function was used to formulate the model specification. The study employs the AutoRegressive distributed lag model to estimate the short-run and the long-run relationship after the confirmation of the pre-test criteria (unit root and bound tests). The study shows that there is a negative but not significant relationship between health pricing, public health investment, and per
capita income in the short run while a significant long-run relationship exists among health pricing, public health investment, and per capita income at a 1% level of significance. Therefore, the study concludes that health pricing is a device for expenditure switching in the health sector. The study recommends that healthcare should be pronounced as public goods or quasi-public goods such that
sustainable development goals of good health and well-being can be achieved.