National Health Accounts" is one of the national accounts satellite accounts that provide a comprehensive, organized, and consistent collection of information on the flow of resources in a country's health services system for a given period. This account shows the status of expenditures spent on the health for a given period (annually). For example, it shows that what institution is spending, on what affairs or activities the costs are spent, where costs are made, for which disease the costs are made, what the characteristics of the concerned person (age, sex, geographical area, income) are, and what the revenue source of these costs is.
In this account, health includes two parts of health and treatment and national health expenditures include the cost of all activities whose main purpose is to, enhance, and / or recover the health of the community and each of its individuals over a specified period of time.
Among the countries of the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa), which includes 21 countries, Iran has been a pioneer in the compilation of "national health accounts" since 2001. Accordingly, the Statistical Centre of Iran has compilied this account in six stages:
• First stage: Four main tables of national health accounts for 2001,
• Second Phase: Time series of four main tables of national health accounts for 2002- 2008,
• Stage Three: Time series of four main tables of national health accounts for 2009-2011
• Stage Four: Four main tables of national health accounts for 2012 and 2013
• Stage Five: Four main tables of the national health accounts for 2014.
• Stage six: Four main tables of national health accounts for 2015.
The National Health Accounts Compilation Project for the years 2014 and 2015 has been conducted upon request of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education by using the past experiences of the Statistical Centre of Iran and the Statistical Research and Training Centre.
Some of the results obtained from this study are as follows:
• Public health expenditures at current prices in 2014 were 909, 396, 935 million rials and in 2015, they were 1, 080, 717, 180 million rials. The growth of the public health expenditures at current prices in 2014 was 38.5% compared to the previous year and in 2015, they were 18.8%.
- Proportion of direct payment from households pocket to the total health expenditures in 2014 was 38.75 percent and in 2015, it was 38.11 percent.
- Among the various health functions, in 2014, medical services with 55.41 percent has the highest proportion from the total health expenditures followed by the cost of medications for outpatients with 16.67%.
• In 2015, 57.73% of medical services has the largest share of the total public health expenditure followed by the cost of medications for outpatients with 17.14%....
- In view of policymakers, paying attention to the cost of "education", "research and development" and "capital formation" in the health sector is very important whether in terms of source or its share from the total health expenditures. The share of each of these costs from the total public health expenditures in 2014 was 3.80, 0.36.3 and 3.23 percent, respectively and in 2015 , this share was, 2.84, 0.45 and 2.06 percent respectively....
- • Among the various providers in 2014, hospitals account for 38.06% of total health expenditures followed by outpatient providers, pharmacies, and health-related services providing institutes, with 30.95, 16.33 and 4.82 percent respectively.
- • Among the various providers in 2015, hospitals accounted for 40.84 percent of total health expenditures followed by outpatient providers, pharmacies, and health-related services providing institutes, respectively with 29.82 , 16. 81 and 4.04% respectively.
- In 2014, households provided 46.32 percent of health finance whether through direct payments from pockets or indirectly through third parties. Accordingly, the central government funds and employers' contributions are 31.47 and 15.48 percent, respectively....
- In 2015, households provided 45.68% of health finance, whether through direct payments from pockets or indirectly through third parties. Accordingly, the central government funds and employers' contributions are 29.39 and 16.8%, respectively....