Health Expenditure and Life expectancy in Côte d’Ivoire versus the other ECOWAS states: 2004-2014 data analysis

Healthcare cost is an important issue for all countries regardless of their level of wealth. In African countries, the challenge is to increase funding for health, optimizing it, with the objective of solidarity health in an equitable system. Thus, the African Union countries met and pledged to set a target of allocating at least 15% of their annual budget to improve the health sector and urged donor countries to scale upsupport. In this comparative panel study, our aims and objectives were to examine and compare trend of health expenditure, life expectancy at birth in Côte d’Ivoire versus the other Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) from 2010 to 2014.Data were collected from World Bank database: per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) health expenditure per capita, public and private health expenditure, total health expenditure and life expectancy were compared among the selected counties. Total health expenditure, private and public expenditure in Côte d’Ivoire were among the lowest, just below the ECOWAS average in contrast to per capita health expenditure. However, with one of the highest per capita Gross Domestic Product and health expenditure in ECOWAS, life expectancy at birth was one of the lowest. Additional research is needed to investigate associations between health expenditures and health outcomes in Côte d’Ivoire. This research will help decisions makers; health professionals who need evidence on how to manage and regulate health spending to achieve better health outcomes.