The document titled “Does health aid matter to financial risk protection? A regression analysis across 159 household surveys, 2000–2016” delves into the unexplored relationship between health aid and financial risk protection (FRP). Despite the growing emphasis on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) as a goal among development assistance for health (DAH) providers and recipient governments, there is limited empirical evidence on how DAH impacts financial risk protection. This study utilises a comprehensive sample of 65 countries with above-average DAH per capita and analyses data from 1.7 million household observations over 16 years.
Through country and year fixed effects regressions and pseudo-panel models, the research assesses the association between DAH and three measures of FRP: catastrophic health expenditure (CHE10%), out-of-pocket health expenditure (OOP%), and impoverishment due to health expenditures (IMP190). The findings indicate that, on average, DAH is not significantly associated with FRP outcomes, though there are suggestive improvements in financial risk protection for the poorest households and when aid is on-budget. These insights hold important implications for policymakers and stakeholders involved in health aid planning and implementation.