Analysis of Household Expenditure on Health

from the Primary Data of 75th and 71st Rounds of Survey by the National Sample Survey Organisation

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to study the health seeking behaviour and service utilisation of different types of public and private facilities; estimate the Out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) on account of outpatient, inpatient care and its components. It compares the unit level data of NSS 71st round for the year 2014 and NSS 75th round for the year 2017-18 to estimate rates of hospitalization, out of pocket expenditure on in-patient and out-patient care, insurance coverage, share of OOPE to HCE and financial catastrophe caused due to these expenses. Our analysis suggests significant decline in the hospitalization rate in 2017-18 compared to 2014 and utilisation of public facilities have increased considerably for both hospitalisation care and out-patient care in both rural and urban areas. When compared to 2014 figures, OOPE has increased across all income classes in the rural areas except for the richest income quintile.