Disease-Specific Out-of-Pocket Payments, Catastrophic Health Expenditure and Impoverishment Effects in India: An Analysis of National Health Survey Data.

backgroundIn India, more than two-thirds of the total health expenditure is incurred through out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) by households. Morbidity events thus impose excessive financial risk on households. The Sustainable Development Goals Target 3.8 specifies financial risk protection for achieving universal health coverage (UHC) in developing countries. This study aimed to estimate the impact of OOPE on catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) and impoverishment effects by types of morbidity in India.

methodsData came from the 75th round of the National Sample Survey (NSS) on the theme 'Social consumption in India: Health', which was conducted during the period from July 2017 to June 2018. For the present study, 56,722 households for hospitalisation, 29,580 households for outpatient department (OPD) care and 6285 households for both (OPD care and hospitalisation) were analysed. Indices, namely health care burden, CHE, poverty head count ratio and poverty gap ratio using standard definitions were analysed.

resultsHouseholds with members who underwent treatment for cancers, cardiovascular diseases, psychiatric conditions, injuries, musculoskeletal and genitourinary conditions spent a relatively high amount of their income on health care. Overall, 41.4% of the households spent > 10% of the total household consumption expenditure (HCE) and 24.6% of households spent > 20% of HCE for hospitalisation. A total of 20.4% and 10.0% of households faced CHE for hospitalisation based on the average per capita and average two capita consumption expenditure, respectively. Health care burden, CHE and impoverishment was higher in households who sought treatment in private health facilities than in public health facilities.

conclusionOur study suggests that there is an urgent need for political players and policymakers to design health system financing policies and strict implementation that will provide financial risk protection to households in India.