Measuring Equality in Primary Health Care Budget Allocation in Iran, Using the Gini Coefficient Method.

Background: In Iran, one of the most important and influential sources for financing the Primary Health Care (PHC )is the government budget. This study was conducted with the aim of evaluating the allocation of the PHC budget and evaluating the equality in the allocation of these resources.

Methods: In this applied descriptive-analytical study, the study population included all of Iran's 31 provinces. Data was gathered from the registered statistics of the Ministry of Health and the Iranian Statistics Center for the years 2021 and 2022. In this research, the Gini coefficient and the Lorenz curve have been used to measure equality in the allocation of the PHC budget.

Results: The results showed that in 2022, the PHC budget increased by 50% compared to 2021. 20 provinces received less than the national average, and 11 provinces received more than the national average. The average allocation budget in urban areas in 2021 and 2022 is 596,452 and 854,936 million rials ($2,385,808 and $2,374,822), respectively. The average allocation budget in rural areas in 2021 and 2022 is 1,144,350 and 1,752,936 million rials, respectively ($4,577,400 and $4,869,267). The numerical value of the Gini coefficient for the budget allocation in 2021 and 2022 was 0.20 and 0.19, respectively.

Conclusion: The Gini coefficient shows that the allocation of the PHC budget is relatively unequal. Advocacy for the reallocation of resources in the health sector based on evidence and based on the deprivation coefficient of demographic groups is one of the most basic ways to support the more deprived and less developed provinces.