Financing Healthcare

Akram, M., & Khan, F. J. (2007).Health care services and government spending in Pakistan (No. 2007: 32). Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.
The current study explores the nature of incidence of public sector expenditures in Pakistan on health sector by using the primary data of the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey (PSLM), 2004-05. This data highlights the present scenario of incidence of the public spending on health and demonstrates to what extent health policy targets have been successfully achieved, who benefits how much and what kind of inequalities exist in distribution of benefits of government expenditure on health, region and income wise. The study shows that expenditure in health sector is overall progressive in Pakistan while being regressive in some sub-head expenditures of health at provincial and regional levels. However, there are great disparities and inequalities across regions and among quintiles. Thus, these findings imply that there is a need to reallocate resources and reformulate the health strategy that target to benefit the disadvantaged groups more and improve the low income people access to medical services is the desired need of the time. The study suggests investing in nursing colleges to overcome limited human capital in the health sector. Furthermore, while the private sector is playing a vital role in the health care service delivery in Pakistan, this study emphasizes that the sector needs to be regulated and monitored.
http://www.pide.org.pk/pdf/Working Paper/WorkingPaper-32.pdf