Revisiting the Determinant of healthcare expenditure

Asymmetrical nature of Health expenditure around the world is highly notable. Healthcare spending in India (3.9 per cent) is slightly higher than the average spending of her South Asian neighbours, but considerably lower than the developed nations. Most important of this is 67 percent of this total healthcare expenditure is the out of pocket expenditure which pushes the major portion of the population under poverty. There is a need for policymakers to understand the determinants of healthcare expenditure so that the effective allocation of the budget can be made. There is extensive literature on the determinants of health expenditure in OECD countries, but the same is not true for developing countries. The main purpose of this study is to investigate determinants of health care expenditure in India. This study discusses the theoretical literature related to healthcare expenditure and tries to extract the determinants through Meta analysis for further research and policy purposes.