Pakistan’s Health Care Under Structural Adjustment

Abstract

The health sector in Pakistan is replete with multifarious problems. It is not responding to the needs of the masses in a way that would provide high-quality care to all in need. Despite the announcements our governments make about health care each year, it limits people’s life chances. That international financial institutions claim that state subsidies to health care create undesirable ‘ market distortions’ that benefit the rich is another contradiction faced by the health sector. In the name of greater equity and efficiency, they argue that users of primary health care services should pay user fees, even if they are from the impoverished class. These institutions have provided structural adjustment loans to remove short-term problems. This lending has not contributed to the improvement of health facilities. The state has significantly withdrawn itself from health matters: it only spent 0.7 % of GDP in 2000. According to the 1995-96 PIHS the private sector controls 80% of the health care provisions in Pakistan. Ongoing privatisation of hospitals is likely to strengthen the private sector further. In sum, the neo liberal medicine is not having the desired effect on the health status of the population