Out-of-pocket expenditure on health care among elderly and non-elderly households in India

Using 66th round of consumption expenditure data, National Sample Survey, 2009-10, this paper tests the hypothesis that the monthly per capita household health spending is significantly higher among elderly households compared to non-elderly households. The households are classified into three mutually exclusive groups; households with only elderly members (elderly households), households with elderly and non-elderly members and households without any elderly member. The health spending include the institutional (hospitalization) and non-institutional health expenditure of the household, standardized for 30 days. Descriptive statistics and two part model are used to understand the differentials of health expenditure across households. Results indicate that the monthly per capita health spending of elderly households is 3.8 times higher than non-elderly households. Health spending accounts 13 percentage of consumption expenditure of elderly households, 7% among households with elderly and non-elderly members and 5% among non-elderly households. Controlling for social, economic and demographic correlates, the per-capita household health spending among elderly households was significantly higher than non-elderly households. The health expenditure is catastrophic for poorer households, casual laborer and households with elderly m