BENGALURU: Sixty-seven per cent of rural households in Mysuru and Raichur districts use government health services for mother and child healthcare over private facilities, a study by Public Health Foundation of India has revealed.The study was commissioned by the National Health Mission and the state Health Department. The study also revealed that the average annual out-of-pocket expenditure for health per household in these districts is `16,189.
Sixty-two per cent of the surveyed households had visited private hospitals as out-patients and 79 per cent as in-patients. While 38 per cent had visited government hospitals as out-patients, 21 per cent were in-patients.
A cross-sectional survey of 2,013 households was conducted in Mysuru and Raichur districts during April and June last year. The study considered Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste, rural and the poorest.
The 12th five-year plan had urged all state governments to pilot and test out approaches for achieving universal health coverage (UHC), and the Karnataka government had set up pilot initiatives in Mysuru and Raichur.On the whole, 40 villages, two city municipal corporations (Mysuru and Raichur) and eight towns were sampled.
The study presents findings on access to primary and secondary level healthcare services, prevalence of disabilities and chronic diseases and accessing care for these conditions, access to ambulatory and in-patient care services and implications of healthcare expenditure incurred while accessing these services on the economic status of the households.
The households were stratified along rural-urban, caste and economic status. The study suggested that with respect to community-based outreach services, access to services of the auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM) was less in general and more so to vulnerable groups, when compared to that of accredited social health activist.
In rural Raichur, poorer access to services of both ASHA and ANM was observed. Inequities in healthcare access is evident through discrepancies visible in mortality, morbidity and access to healthcare across geographic locations.
Mysuru has an infant mortality rate of 37 per 1,000 live births and Raichur has 64 per 1,000 live births. The district health assessment that preceded this study shows low coverage of Yashasvini, at a little above six per cent in both the districts, and 28 per cent and 40 per cent coverage of Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana in Mysuru and Raichur, respectively, and low utilisation of Vajpayee Arogyashree Scheme at less than 1 per cent of targeted beneficiaries who are below poverty line.