Magnitude and determinants of inpatient health expenditure among the elderly in India

As India is experiencing both the epidemiological and demographic transition, the grey population is expected to incur huge expenditure on health care, especially hospitalization expenditure, in the coming decades. The present study, thus, examines the magnitude of different types of inpatient health expenditure (medical, non‐medical, total and out‐of‐pocket expenditure) and factors affecting them among the Indian elderly, using a health expenditure model empirically tested by the World Health Organization. Data were drawn from the 75th Round of the Health Survey conducted by the National Sample Survey Office, Government of India. In addition to basic descriptive statistics, the study employs a two‐stage least square and a generalized linear model with log‐link and gamma distribution to conduct the econometric analysis. The study finds that higher income, education, and household size, diseases like cancer, treatment involving surgery, poor physical mobility, and the elderly opting for packages involve higher inpatient health spending, while both private and social health insurance tends to reduce the same. So, a thrust on insurance‐financed health systems may reduce health spending among the elderly. In this context, the study suggests that a disease‐specific policy is required for the elderly along with ensuring state‐of‐the‐art treatment facilities for them in public hospitals for critical ailments.