Abstract
Universal Health Coverage (UHC) aims to provide quality health services to all without causing financial distress. In developing countries, people resort to ex-post distress financing when faced with a health shock. In India, intending to overcome this, the government has introduced a vast network of financial protection schemes for the poor and vulnerable, majorly at the inpatient level. However, studies suggest that free outpatient care is also critical in reaching the goal of UHC. Our study, based in India, uses hardship financing, which is ex-post informal borrowings, contributions from friends/ relatives, or sale of assets, as the indicator to measure financial constraints faced by individuals to meet the unforeseen health expenditures. The paper has two primary goals. The first is to identify the disease(s) causing the maximum financial hardship in the country. Secondly, it looks at the change in hardship financing over time.
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