From Table 3 above, two messages are delivered. Firstly, curative health
spending in Africa was not well targeted to the poorest. Subsidies flowing to the
poorest were approximately 20 per cent less than the flow to the richest. Secondly,
health spending was progressive; subsidies to the poorest group amounted to
a higher share of that group’s total household expenditures than did the subsidy to the
richest quintile, especially in South Africa. This means that with other factors being
constant, if the government provided all households with an annual income transfer
(not in health subsidy), the income expenditure distribution would be improved.