Demand for health care services in Uganda: Implications for poverty reduction

Using the 2002/03 Uganda National Household Survey data we empirically examine the nature and determinants of individuals’ decisions to seek care on condition of illness reporting. The major findings include: first, cost of care is regressive and substantially reduces the health care utilization for any formal provider by the poorer individuals after controlling for other factors. In other words, even among public facilities cost of care remains a barrier to utilization of these services. Second, there is no doubt that putting in place strategies aimed at increasing the income of the poor will increase their utilization of the health facilities, though the impact will be higher for private care. Third, besides income and cost of care, other factors, in particular education and physical access proxied by distance to the facilities are important determinants of health care utilization.