Title of article :
Household Choice of Public versus Private Health Institution for Maternal Health-Care: A Case Study of Bahawalpur (Pakistan)
Author/Authors :
Ali Khan, Rana Ejaz Department of Economics - The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan , Noreen, Sara Department of Economics - The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan
Abstract :
In Pakistan the ratio of institutional delivery that is one of the most important components
of maternal health-care is lower than in a number of developing economies. The ratio of
public sector institutional delivery is again lower than private sector institutional delivery.
Government of Pakistan spends a lot of money for health services and there is a complete
system of health-care comprising of basic health units to bigger hospitals in the country.
For policy making it is necessary to analyze why the households choose private sector
health institutions. The paper empirically analyzes the determinants of choice of public
versus private sector health institution by the household. For the purpose binary logistic
regression (bivariate and multivariate) has been applied on primary data collected form
Bahawalpur. The results have shown that birth-interval, woman education, partner’s
education, woman autonomy (freedom of movement), planned pregnancy, media
exposure, wealth index, birth-interval, number of pregnancies and pregnancy
complications decreases the probability of delivery at public sector health institution. The
inter-spouse age gap, woman work status and health worker’ visit enhance the likelihood
of delivery at public sector health institution. It may be concluded that quality of healthcare matters for choice of private sector health institutions and private sector health
institutions are substitute to public sector health institutions. The public sector institutions
should increase the quality of health-care and there should be a regulatory body for
ranking the health institutions.
Keywords :
maternal health , natal-care , health economics , household economics , household decision-making , woman autonomy , public sector health institutions , private health institutions
Journal title :
Pakistan Journal of Commerce and Social Science