Summary and Conclusions

Abstract

Healthcare policymakers in South Asia struggle with the conflicting goals of providing ready access to medical care with rising costs. The challenges are particularly acute where outcomes are uncertain, and there exists poor quality of treatment in the respective countries due to underdeveloped health infrastructure. To investigate the impact of these, this study is aimed at understanding the structure of health services and their assessments. The study has also evaluated the economic costs of barriers to trade in health services in select South Asian economies such as Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal based on primary survey.

The author would like to express their deepest gratitude to the South Asia Network for Economic Institutionbs ( SANEI) in Kathmandu, Nepal for allowing us to use some contents of the Chapter 8 of the report entitled,“Trade in Health Services in South Asia: An Examination of the Need for Regional Cooperation”, submitted by the authors in 2008.