Incidence and implications of outpatient care among the vendors employed in Punjab

Ninety percent of the families earn their livelihood from the informal sector and this sector contributes to two-fifths to the GDP of the country. But a large number of workers in informal live and works under unhygienic conditions and do not get health care benefits. Keeping this in mind, the present study examines the economic burden of illness among the vendors. The study was based on the primary data collected form the three urban districts of Punjab: Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana. Analysis of data has been done with the help of frequency, percentage, mean and median. The result shows that 37.6 percent of the vendors suffered from the illness and majority of them utilized healthcare facility for outpatient care. The main reasons of the outpatient care were cold/cough and cold/fever. Majority of the respondents visited chemist shops followed by government hospitals, RMP/Local doctor, private hospital, private clinic, Hakim/faith healer and homeopathic for outpatient. The mean and median expenditure on treatment was 437.84 and 90 respectively, while mean and median money loss to the respondents was 826.92 and 400 respectively. The various copying mechanisms to meet healthcare burden were own money followed by help from neighbors, friends, employer and relatives. To sum up, there is an urgent need for public action in building health security into the lives of the poor.