Objective

Examine the magnitude, composition, and evolution of health spending in Colombia and its financing methodology between the period 2013-2018. The aim is to provide recent evidence for better understanding and monitoring the health system flows resources.

Methods

The analysis focuses on concepts and classifications of the SHA-2011 methodology, currently adopted by most World Health Organization member countries in their annual health spending estimates. The primary source of information is the global health expenditure database from the same entity, whose results are comple-mented with additional calculations using official national sources.

Results

Considering the spending side, the most relevant component refers to public spending on health, which represents, on average, 76.4% of the current health spending and whose financing with public fiscal resources and contributions to security social, represents 70.6% of total financing. The remaining 23.6% corresponds to private financing spending, representing average values for out-of-pocket household payments (15.8%) and voluntary insurance payments (7.8%).

Conclusions

Colombia, like most Latin American countries, follows a predominantly public financing model, in which funds composition registered a positive change in fiscal resources as a result of financing policies adopted during the analyzed period.