Page 31 - GHES-2-3

Global Health Economics and
Sustainability
Innovating sustainable specialized healthcare

the developing world. Despite underperforming in terms
Global philanthropy environment index (GPEI c )/5 2022 (Philanthropy, 2022) 3.53 4.77 4.38 2.87 3.80 care efficiency is quite impressive. This ranking speaks
of financial allocations, Jamaica’s 53 ranking in health-
rd
to a comparably high degree of efficiency in resource
allocation and the quality of its primary health-care system
and public health systems (Moody, 1978; Riley, 2005).
The Global Philanthropy Environment Index (GPEI),

Fairness of financial contribution (maximum=1) 1997 data a 0.921 (rank 115) 0.954 (rank 55) 0.974 (rank 18) 0.939 (rank 80) 0.904 (rank 143) listed in Table 1, was created by the Lilly Family School
of Philanthropy at Indiana University Purdue. It evaluates
countries on a five-point scale (1 – 5) across six key factors
that comprehensively measure philanthropy: (i) Ease of
operating a philanthropic organization; (ii) tax incentives
on giving; (iii) cross-border philanthropic flows; (iv)
political environment; (v) economic environment; and (vi)
sociocultural environment for philanthropy. As presented
in Table 1, Jamaica has room for further improvement in
WHO health ranking (n=191 countries) 53 37 30 140 175 this objective measure of giving (Philanthropy, 2022).

Despite Jamaica’s 53 ranking, many specialized health
rd
care needs are not adequately met as the majority of the
population does not have the financial resources to obtain
WHO female lifespan (2015) 77 81 84 63 64 private care. Government facilities, while excellent at
providing primary healthcare and emergency care, lack the
resources to offer comfortable private rooms and up-to-
Table 1. Comparisons of health care in Jamaica with selected countries of different development
date management of several specialized health conditions.
This lack of resources has led to a growing disparity in
the quality of care available to different segments of the
Per capita spending (US$) on health ( b Global average: US$987.18 [2012]) 512 8900 5675 98 1091 Notes: a WHO: World Health Report 2000 (WHO, 2000); b The World Bank Data (Bank, 2023); c GPEI: A measure of how well-developed philanthropy is in each country listed above. out-of-pocket or through insurance. Countries with
population, based principally on the ability to pay, either
health-care systems that are efficient, accessible, and cost-
effective tend to exhibit a mix of public and private sector
involvement (WHO, 2000).
Abbreviations: WHO: World Health Organization; GDP: Gross domestic product.
No formal market research was conducted before these

they emerged based on the individual entrepreneurial
% healthcare private sector accessed (Ali, 2023) ( b Global average: 39.52%) 46.7 46.9 29.5 59.1 51.6 private medical institutions were developed in Jamaica;
ambitions of physicians and private citizens. Over time,
more advanced imaging and laboratory facilities became
available, differentiating the range of services in private
settings from those in government hospitals. In 2016,
11 institutions achieved the regulatory status of private
hospitals on the island, but more recently, this number has
fallen to only four due to tightened legislation, although
the overall number of private facilities has increased
%GDP spent on healthcare (2012) ( b Global average: 9.36%) 4.8 17.9 11.3 4.5 8.9 (Johnson, 2020).
Patients who utilize government facilities often access
private investigative and surgical facilities not available
in the public sector. Furthermore, in recent years, formal
public–private partnerships (PPPs) have been formed to

government, which therefore does not have to make the
Country Jamaica United States Canada Kenya South Africa access these private investigative services, paid for by the
capital outlays or deal with expensive ongoing maintenance
(Linton, 2022). However, the Vision 2030 Jamaica National

Volume 2 Issue 3 (2024) 3 https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.2717