Does Maternity Care Expenditure is Catastrophic? A Cross- Sectional Study of Household`s Expenditure on Maternal Health Care Services in EAG States of India

Abstract

Objectives: The main aim of this study is to analyze the differentials in average expenditure on prenatal,
delivery and postnatal care by socio-economic characteristics of households in EAG states and assessment
of the number of households incurred catastrophic health expenditure on maternity care.
Method: We have used 71st round of the NSSO data held on June 2014. For the analysis of prenatal care,
delivery care, postnatal care, total maternity expenditure and Out of Pocket Expenditure (OOPE) have been
taken as dependent variables and the independent variables have been chosen based on previous studies as
well as socio-economic aspects, especially in EAG states of India. Bivariate analysis and binary logistic
method have been used for the data analysis.
Results: Results shows that MCE is high in urban sector specially in Orissa among all EAG states. We also
found that Orissa has the maximum number of household that incurred high catastrophic-health-expenditure.
Conclusion: We can conclude that women belong to better socio-economic condition spent more money
on maternity care and incurred high OOPE where is, it is less among women who belong to poor socioeconomic
condition, due to lack of awareness and other socio-economic hurdles