The government of Odisha recognises that investment in health care results in invaluable gain in human development. It has set various plan and goals to improve the health condition of its people.
No doubt there have been various improvements in the health condition of the people like infant mortality rate has reduced from 98 per 1000 live birth by 2000–2001 to 53 per I000 live births by 2011–12. There has been total eradication of small pox and guinea worms diseases but other communicable diseaseslike KalaAzar, leprosyand filarialareexpectedto beeliminatedsoon. It isobserved thatonly less than 1% (0.92) of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) is spend on Health and Family Welfare in Odisha. The low public expenditure results in deprivation of health services to the economically weaker section of the society in the State. The major part of health expenses are met by the private sources. Household constitutes major part of the health expenditure in the state. In this context this study tries to examine the pattern of health status in terms of health care indices and in the state. It discusses the household medical expenditure in relation to their socio economic status; identifies all the determinants of the household health care expenditure. And further tries to evaluate the effects of the determinants of health on household health care expenditure across different income groups, socioeconomic groups and by gender. Using primary data on the basis of sample survey conducted among the households in one of the oldest urban city of Odisha i.e. Cuttack to analyse the above issues. The following are the main findings of the study which portrays that the households are spending only 3.3 per cent of their annual income on health care. But the proportion of health expenditure to total expenditureby thehouseholdsis veryhigh asitis6.9per cent of the total annual household consumption expenditure. Thehousehold income is found to bepositive andstatisticallysignificant at 1% level, with increase inhousehold incomethe healthexpenditure increases but ina lessproportion. Ageand levelof education also influences the health careexpenditure positively and significantly. The inverse relationship between gender and health care expenditure indicates that the expenditure on health for the female memberof the familyislessthan their malecounterpart, but it is notsignificant. It is found that health care expenditure of the forward groups is higher than the backward groups in the study area.
