Improving the Method of GDP Estimation of Private Health Care Service in India

It is observed that in India there is a wide gap between health care service output and the health care expenditure. In 2004–05 health care expenditure was 4.25 per cent of the GDP whereas the output, measured in terms of GDP was 1.8 per cent of the total GDP. This poor inefficient performance might be a misleading picture due to the application of improper estimation methods. As a major part of the health care services in India is delivered by the private sector (consisting of private organized and private unorganized segments), serious attention is required for the method of estimation of private health care service output. For both the private organized and the private unorganized part, GDP is estimated through the Labour Input Method (LIM). In LIM the implicit assumption is that each worker contributes the same value addition to private Health Care Services. This implies that all categories of workers (from physicians to sweepers) are equally accountable in providing health care services irrespective of the skill and occupational heterogeneity, which is unrealistic. The present study is an endeavour to improve the existing method of GDP estimation of private health care services in India by giving proper weight to labour input according to their service accountability.
Source: Journal of Health Management - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Articles Source Type: research