Health services utilization trends among households in Kerman: 1996-2002

Objective (s): The main purpose of this research was to study the health services utilization among households in Kerman province from1996 to 2002. This was a descriptive study. Data were extracted from documents of the Iran Statistic Center and the Iran Central Bank. The analysis showed that total health cost has increased without considering effect of the price in urban and rural areas of Kerman in 1996-2002. This included increase in drug cost and general practitioner visit cost in the past seven years. The cost of specialist visits has decreased in rural areas, and the cost of other services has increased in some years and has decreased in other years.Study of health costs in households with low income (first group), with average income (second group), and with high income (third group) showed that average health costs have significant differences only in the (first and second) groups in urban areas, while in the (first and second) groups, (first and third) groups, and (second and third) groups significant differences were observed in rural areas. The increase of total health costs among households is a serious problem. There is need to more insurance coverage and increasing government’s share in providing health services for people with low income.