Abstract
In Kerala, the disturbing trend is that the public health care system is getting alienated from the people since 1980’s. About 30% of the lower income families seeks medical service from the government hospitals. This is because of the fall in the quality of the services of the government hospitals. In the present situation, the rate of utilization of the private sector can be increased drastically pointing to the poor performance of the public health care system. The government hospital has some problems like poor physical or infrastructure facilities, ineffective leadership and unsatisfactory supply of drugs and medical supplies faculty of staffing procedure. These above stated problems do not exist in private hospitals. Therefore, the present study carried out to assess the healthcare expenditure of government and private hospitals patients in Kannur district. The study was conducted during 2015-16. The sample size of the survey contains a total of 120 respondents from Kannur district. The study analyses the interrelationship between health care expenditure and major socioeconomic factors such as monthly income, age, gender, marital status and occupation. The health care expenditure divided into two-direct and indirect health care cost. The direct health care cost includes- user fee charge, medical charge, diagnostic charge and surgical cost. The indirect health care cost comprises of transportation charge, food and bevarages charge and accommodation charges. The study found that the direct cost of health care is high in both private and public sector hospitals. Finally, the study suggests that an initiative along the role of government is requested to secure the health demands of poor as health care costs are growing over time.
Highlights
The results show that the diagnostic charges between Rs 201 and more than Rs 600 of the private hospital are more important than that the government hospital, Figure 2
Age Group In the case of 65 sample respondents in the government hospital, according to Table 11, (i) 40% of the respondents belong to the age group below 50 spend amount less than Rs4000, (ii) No one can spend Rs 10000 in the age group above 50, (iii) 7.7% respondents spend between Rs 40017000 they belongs to the age group 31-50, (iv) 3.2% respondents spend between Rs 7001-1000 and they belonged to the age group 31-50, and (v) In the age belongs below 30 they spend no amount between Rs 7001-10000
The study revealed that the private hospital has provided good facilities compared to government hospital, but the private hospital is more expensive as compared to the government hospital
Summary
India is the second largest populated country in the world. Health is an important determinant of wellbeing and health care is regarded as a public right, and an important responsibility of governments is to provide the care to all people irrespective of race, religion, caste or creed, rural or urban, rich or poor, and so on. India’s private health sector accounts for about 80% outpatient treatments for both rich and poor, more than 55% of all inpatient admissions or hospitalization i.e. curative services, 40% of prenatal care, 55% of institutional deliveries and as low as 10% of immunizations delivered It provides 40% of hospitalizations for the poor and 60% for the privileged, (MukhopadhyayDebes, 2006). The present study tries to measure the pattern of health care expenditure of private and public in Kerala especially in the Hospital Patients in Kannur District. This district is situated in the northerly part of the Kerala state spread between the Lakshadweep Sea and Western Ghats.
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