The Major Trends In Public Health Care Spending In India And Its Relationship With Health Care Outcomes Among North Eastern States

Abstract

Out-of-pocket spending on health care has become a public discourse in India and the world over due to its overwhelming capacity to impact the economic status of the people who make the spending especially the poor households. In fact many households have become poor and many have been pushed deeper into the poverty trap due catastrophic out-of-pocket spending on health care. Therefore, it is pertinent that the government spending on health care is taken care off to protect the health and wealth of its people. This paper seeks to investigate with empirical evidences from secondary data on the public health care spending and the out-of-pocket spending in India with special reference to the North Eastern States (NER) of India. The paper is contextualized within the construction of government spending on health care and the extent of out-of-pocket spending of the people in the NER. In this milieu the broad objective of the paper is to analyze the public health care spending in India and amongst the north eastern states of India. Further, it discusses relationship of public spending with health care outcomes. It is emphasized the need for increasing the government expenditure on health care in the region to maneuver and realize balanced regional development in the context of availability of effective health care services. Keywords : Public Health Spending, out-of-pocket spending, health performance, Inclusive Development, North Eastern States Normal 0 21 false false false RO X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:Table Normal; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:Calibri,sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:Times New Roman; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}