Health expenditure and household budgets in rural Liberia

Abstract

Fieldwork conducted in a Kpelle village in north-central Liberia revealed that health-care expenses constitute a major part of domestic spending. The actual transactions for major healthcare expenditures are handled by men, typically using income that jointly belongs to the couple in addition to the husband’s personal income. Women are likely to spend their personal incomes on minor health expenses for themselves and their children. Women’s health expenditure, as well as their income handling arrangements, seem to differ according to the type of conjugal union they are in. Although Kpelle wives have input in most financial decisions, they tend to defer to men on issues which are associated with the Western world, namely Western health care, educational and tax expenditures