Comparison study of inequality based on health expenses of households in Iran provinces

These days, in many societies, fair and equality are the most significant concepts among the governments and peoples. The concept of fairness in the health systems, describes equal expenses of households in this area. The aim of this paper is to investigate the health expense inequality of households in the Iran provinces, with Gini index of inequality measurement and statistical methods. In this paper we use the 2008 health expense data from statistical center of Iran. The process of preparing data and estimating the statistical indexes, (like mean and coefficient of variation, Lorenz curve and evaluating the Gini index) and making plots have been done with the use of S-PLUS software. For making the index comparing maps we have used Arcgis 9.2 software. By estimating the Gini index, plots and maps we found out that there is a remarkable inequality of health expenses in the provinces such as the Khorasan Razavi and Hormozgan by 0.71 and 0.92 who had the least and the most expenses between the provinces. On the other hand the mean of these expenses varies from 90000 to 630000 Rials and the poor provinces that are in the east borders of Iran have the least mean of this expense. The mean expenses of health in households decreases between states by going from east to the west of country. The household expenses of poor states have the least incomes and, the least facilities in health. On the other hand inequality in this expenses distribution is noticeable. Governments should decrease the inequality by increasing health facilities and financial aids in poor areas and in different ways such as different types of health insurance.