Most Lankans pay medical expenses from own pocket

Saturday, 15 January 2011 00:17 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Over 50% of Sri Lankans pay medical expenses from their own pocket, according to an analysis published in the medical journal ‘Lancet’ on the overall trends in Asia.

It revealed private expenditure on health in India is close to 78% compared to 14% in the Maldives, 29% in Bhutan, 53% in Sri Lanka, 31% in Thailand and 61% in China.

Only Pakistan is worse off with private expenditure being as high as 82.5% according to the paper, ‘Financing Health Care for All: Challenges and Opportunities.” Analysis of the per person public spending on health has also thrown up bleak results. While the Indian Government spent just 19 Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) dollars on every person for health, the figure stood at 207 in Thailand, 122 in China, 88 in Sri Lanka, 751 in Maldives and 60 in Bhutan. “The per person government spending on health in India was about 22% of that in Sri Lanka, 16% of that in China and less than 10% of that in Thailand,” the paper says.

Public spending on health – 0.94% of the gross domestic product (GDP) – is among the lowest in the world.