Access to Health Services

It is generally believed that countries at a higher stage of development are more likely to allocate adequate resources to health than those which are much poorer. Also such health status indicators as mortality rates are much lower in advanced countries than in the developing countries. For example, an analysis of 42 countries showed a positive correlation between low per capita income and poor health standards. In the sample which covered countries with infant mortality rates of over 100 per 1,000 births, 26 countries had per capita incomes below US $400, nine had per capita incomes between US $400 and 670 and a very small number had incomes per capita above US $800.1 Notwithstanding this correlation, income per capita is only one of the explanatory factors for the state of health in developing countries — necessary but not sufficient to explain poor health conditions. Indeed, the China—India comparison which is our concern here, is a case of two countries with similar levels of average per capita incomes but with differences in the health status of their populations. The differences in the availability and distribution of health services in these two countries are, therefore, to be explained by other factors such as the nature of government policies and the effectiveness in their implementation, income distribution, and organisational/institutional endowments.