Public Health Expenditure and Health Status

Contents:  Preface. 1. Introduction. 2. Public health-concepts. 3. Health status: An inter-state analysis. 4. Public health expenditure. 5. Relationship between public health expenditure and health status. 6. Composite index of health status: An inter-state analysis. 7. Economic reforms and health sector. 8. Summary and conclusions. Bibliography. Index.

Health as conceived by World Health Organization (WHO) is a "state of physical, mental and social well being and not merely the absence of disease of infirmity". In the terminology of Amartya Sen, health contributes to a person's basic capability to function, to choose the life he/she has reason to value. As health is a global issue and has to be high on the agenda of all the countries whether rich or poor. In the Indian context, the impact of development and changes in the health sector are quite divergent and unsatisfactory, in spite of the fact that there have been voluminous advances in health sector in India. Yet the fact remains that more than twenty percent of the Indian population still lives in abject poverty.