Ability to pay for health care: Concepts and evidence

In many developing countries people are expected to contribute to the cost of health care from their own pockets. As a result, people's ability to pay (ATP) for health care, or the affordability of health care, has become a critical policy issue in developing countries, and a particularly urgent issue where households face combined user fee burdens from various essential service sectors such as health, education and water. Research and policy debates have focused on willingness to pay (WTP) for essential services, and have tended to assume that WTP is synonymous with ATP. This paper questions this assumption, and suggests that WTP may not reflect ATP. Households may persist in paying for care, but to mobilize resources they may sacrifice other basic needs such as food and education, with serious consequences for the household or individuals within it. The opportunity costs of payment make the payment 'unaffordable' because other basic needs are sacrificed. An approach to ATP founded on basic needs and the opportunity costs of payment strategies (including non-utilization) is therefore proposed. From the few studies available, common household responses to payment difficulties are identified, ranging from borrowing to more serious 'distress sales' of productive assets (e.g. land), delays to treatment and, ultimately, abandonment of treatment. Although these strategies may have a devastating impact on livelihoods and health, few studies have investigated them in any detail. In-depth longitudinal household studies are proposed to develop understanding of ATP and to inform policy initiatives which might contribute to more affordable health care.