Sources of finance for hospitalized treatment in India: Evidence for policy

ABSTRACT

A study of sources of finance which the household resorts to, in order to meet the hospitalization expense can be of use to policy makers who may want to work in the direction of providing financial security against hospitalization expenses to the masses. In this view, an attempt has been made to study the sources of finance for hospitalized treatment at an individual level based on criteria such as level of living, socio-economic background, level of care in India, as well as at state level through unit level data of the survey on “Social Consumption related to Health”, conducted by National Sample Survey (NSS) during January, 2014 to June, 2014. It has been found that the household's income or saving is not sufficient to meet the expenditure for hospitalized treatment and people have to borrow or arrange finance by other means for hospitalized treatment across the country. The results thereby suggest inputs to policy makers and re-establish the necessity of appropriate policy in order to provide financial security against escalating medical expenses.