More than half of all healthcare spending 'out of pocket'.

ISLAMABAD -- The share of people paying for healthcare expenses on their own, or out of pocket (OOP) made up 52.8 percent of the total health expenditure in 2019-20, up slightly went from 51.7pc in 2017-18, the National Health Account estimates released on Monday indicated.

Moreover, people spent more than the government on healthcare, around Rs775.412 billion, as against Rs468.228bn spent by the federal, provincial, tehsil and district governments 2019-20.

The data also shows that Punjab has the highest share (53pc) followed by Sindh (23pc) and KP (17pc, including FATA) while Balochistan has just (6pc) share of Pakistan's OOP health expenditures.

OOP spending is a payment by households directly to providers to obtain services and health products. It includes purely private transactions (individual payments to private doctors and pharmacies), official patient cost-sharing within defined public or private benefit packages, and informal payments.

The National Health Accounts of Pakistan 2019-20 report, released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, shows OOP spending as a share of total current health expenditure and measures the size of OOP in the total national current health spending. It shows how much the health system relies on households' own spending to finance it.

According to the NHA report, of the total healthcare expenditures in Pakistan, 39.8pc is made by general government agents which include social security, Zakat, Baitul Mal expenditures as well.

The share of development partners/donor's organizations in total health expenditures is almost 0.5pc.

Total health expenditure in Pakistan in the fiscal year 2019-20 is estimated as Rs1, 466bn against Rs1,206bn.

This shows an increase of Rs260bn over the fiscal year 2017-18, which is a 21.6pc increase in nominal terms as it includes inflation of health care goods and services.Statistics show that there are 1,289 public sector hospitals (114,841 beds), dispensaries 5,849 (1,077 beds), basic health units 5,472 (6,594 beds)...