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HEALTHCARE FOR ALL

 

Our RecommendationThe government needs to provide free healthcare including medicine to all people in Pakistan.

 

Explanation

Pakistan spends only 0.7% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on healthcare (even this low rate has been declining) making Pakistanis incur the heaviest out-of-pocket expenditure on healthcare in South Asia. This may be the worst thing a country can do to its citizens other than out rightly murdering them. Only one other country (Myanmar) spends less than 0.7% of its GDP in healthcare.


A sick nation cannot contribute to GDP of the country and thus not providing healthcare to its citizens costs much more than what a country needs to spend on the healthcare. This is obvious from the economic health of the developed countries that spend a much higher percentage (5% or more) of their GDP on healthcare.


Other Points about Healthcare in Pakistan


- The extremely poor do not have enough income to buy food so they suffer from acute nutritional deficiencies. People in poor families are sick over 90 days in a year. Lack of public health services forces them to spend a good portion of their income in private health services. Many of the poor have to sell whatever they own including their land and live stock to pay for healthcare services thus destroying their future.


- Lack of healthcare also means lack of family planning services that results in over population and creates much bigger problems in the future.

 

References

Public health expenditure published by The World Bank