Understanding the heterogeneity in healthcare expenditure in India.

ABSTRACT: Health expenditure is indicative of the financial burden of health care and serves as a yardstick of health system performance. However, health expenditure may be shaped by multiple factors such as prevalence of morbidity, income inequality and above all, unobserved heterogeneity such as disease severity. This study uses finite mixture models (FMM) to analyze health expenditure distribution based on a National Sample Survey (NSS) which is a nationally representative dataset. This exercise identifies three different class of health care users, acknowledging the heterogeneity within the expenditure distribution. The classes demonstrate variations in spending behavior and associated characteristics. It is observed that health spending is influenced by disease severity, age, gender, education,

SUBMITTER: Umenthala SR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12625602 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature