HEALTH STATUS

The Implications of Health Expenditure on Health Status

The Implications of Health Expenditure on Health Status

Introduction

The topic of health care has always been an important part of society because illness and disease, and on the flip side, wellness, affects everyone equally, regardless of their gender, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic standing, or ideological beliefs. However, the design and delivery of the actual health care system varies across various geographic regions of the world. The quality of the health services and the care given to patients form one of the most significant issues in the health care system (Health Services Research Information Centre, 2013, pp. 217 - 219).

The increasing demand for the high quality health care and the vision of the health institutes to provide high quality health care has lead to the transformations and changes in the methods of the health care with many respects. The hospitals and clinics are undergoing several different changes in their systems with various aspects such as changes in structures, staffing, training, tactics and other related areas in order to evaluate and to provide a good quality health care to the citizens (Delamater, Shortridge & Messina, 2013, pp. 152 - 155).

Discussion

The Determinants of Health

There are many determinants of health. According to various empirical studies factors such as genetic endowment, nutrition, the environmental surroundings, income. as well as education, all play a significant role in influencing the expenditure on health services, which ultimately affects the health outcomes (Rychetnik & Frommer, 2002, pp. 9 - 16).

Health expenditure pattern

The entire health expenditure in relation to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the world has moved up from three percent in the year 1948 to approximately eight percent in the current year. On the global level, up to 3.8 trillion US dollars have been spent in the year 2001 which makes over 600 US dollars per capita (World Health Organization, 2005). Nonetheless, a broad variation is present in the health expenditure, per capita, among various countries throughout the globe and particularly those countries which belong to the Eastern Mediterranean Region. In this region, the per capita health expenditure has been observed to range from lower than thirty US dollars to up to nine hundred US dollars (Health Services Research Information Centre, 2013, pp. 217 - 219).

Moreover, a broad discrepancy in the per capita health expenditure has also been observed in relation to the various socioeconomic sectors of various countries. The dissimilarity in the income of these families ultimately leads to the differences in their expenditure for the aspect of health. For instance, those families, which lie in the top income deciles, spend a lot more for their health, on an average as compared to those families while lie in the lower income deciles. Also, it has been observed that in countries such as Iran, on an average, this expenditure generally tends to be twenty times more than that of countries in the lower deciles. However, this discrepancy becomes more evident in those nations where there is a weak provision of healthcare and ...