Linkages between Out-of-Pocket Expenditure (OOPE) on Health and Health Infrastructure in India

Abstract

Finance is one of the vital components of a health system. Both public and private sources fund health systems. Health financing includes the processes of acquiring, managing and allocating funds. In most emerging nations, private finance is a key source of funding for health care. The private sources are made up of households and employers who pay the service providers directly or through insurance payments. Private involvement in the healthcare industry has steadily increased since the introduction of neoliberal policies in India in the early 1990s. In this context, an attempt is made in this paper to examine the pattern of health expenditure and the linkages among the economic status of the state, total health expenditure (THE), out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) and health infrastructure at the macro level. The analysis is based on the secondary data from several published sources. The results indicate a decline in the share of private financing in total health expenditure at a compound annual growth rate of -1.28 between 2004-05 and 2019-20. The Pearson correlation coefficient between OOPE and health infrastructure was not found to be significant.