India Ranks 3rd in 'Out Of Pocket' Expenditure on Health

Bangalore: India holds the third rank in the south-east Asia region in the latest list of "countries with highest out of pocket (OOP) expenditure on health." The list was published by World Health Organization.

The WHO's World Health Statistics 2012 was released on Wednesday and the statistics signify that nearly 60 percent of total health expenditure in India was paid by the common man from his own pocket in 2009.

 In south-east Asia region Myanmar has the top OOP expenditure of 82 percent. Bangladesh comes at the second rank with 65 percent OOP expenditure. Pakistan has 41 percent of OOP expenditure and China has 38 percent. In the OOP expenditure statistics Nepal has 49 percent, Sri Lanka 44 percent, Indonesia 41 percent, Maldives 28 percent, Thailand 15 percent and Bhutan has 13 percent.

When it comes to global list, Afghanistan along with Myanmar was ranked first in OOP health expenditure with 82 percent. It was followed by countries Sierre Leone 80 percent, Chad 78 percent, Yemen 73 percent and Cameroon 70 percent.

The countries that spent less on their OOP health expenditure include Netherlands- 6 percent, France- 7 percent, Monaco- 7 percent, UK- 10 percent, Ireland- 12 percent, Denmark- 13 percent, Germany- 13 percent, Norway- 15 percent, Sweden- 17 percent and Italy- 20 percent.