IF health is a human right, then the inability to pay for essential healthcare should not be a barrier. This is why financial protection for healthcare is an integral component of universal health coverage (UHC).

In poor countries with weak economies, inadequate healthcare systems, and lack of fiscal prioritisation of healthcare, the vast majority of people are not covered in terms of healthcare service coverage and financial protection. How, then, do people access healthcare? They spend out of their incomes, savings and loans; hence the term, ‘out-of-pocket health expenditures’ (OOPHE).

When already poor or almost poor people have to resort to OOPHE, it badly affects their household incomes and they have to make tough choices between other essentials — maybe food or children’s education. When a household ends up spending more than 10 per cent and 25pc (both thresholds are used) of its total consumption or income, the World Health Organisation (WHO) defines it as ‘catastrophic OOPHE’, which hurts the poor most, especially the women, children and elderly among them. Catastrophic health expenditures push people into poverty and deepen the poverty of the already poor.

In March 2024, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics published the National Health Accounts 2021-22. The report presents the findings of the ninth round of National Health Accounts in Pakistan. NHA was initiated in Pakistan with the support of the WHO in 2005-06 and before the recent report, eight rounds had been completed for eight fiscal years. NHA is a standard methodology for tracking national health........

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