Socio-economic Status and Health Expenditure of Households in Benin

This paper studies the determinants of household health expenditure. It focuses on catastrophic health expenditure using the recent year 2009 household survey for Benin, and uses the Heckman approach to control for potential selectivity bias. We find that household income, level of education and household size have positive and significant effects on the magnitude of health expenditure. Furthermore, health care is a necessary good for households in Benin. Households comprising both children and elderly persons, the size of the household and living in a rural area are major risk factors for catastrophic health expenditure. In addition, catastrophic health expenditure has a significant and negative effect on the budget allocated to education and food. These results have some policy implications in terms of ensuring better access to health care. For instance, as health care is a necessary good in Benin, the Ministry of Health could subsidize public health facilities to enable access for the poor