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Catastrophic Health Care Expenditure on Maternal Health Care in India: Evidence from National Level Data

Introduction: Catastrophic health expenditure is defined as payments for health services exceeding 40% of household disposable income after subsistence needs are met. Utilization of maternal health care services has been recognized as a significant factor in influencing maternal and child mortality. India continues to account for a quarter of all maternal and child deaths at the world level. The cost of health care is comparatively higher in private sector than the public health facilities. Households using private inpatient services are more likely to face catastrophic expenditure. Materials and Method: This paper has utilized the data collected by the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) during January-June, 2014. It is a cross sectional dataset available in public domain. The dataset provides information on Social Consumption and Health scenario of the population. To carry out the research, descriptive statistics, bivariate and logistic regression analysis has been used. The study shows that urban sector, primary educated and women belonging to poorest wealth quintile bear high catastrophic health expenditure than their other counterparts. Western and Southern region have low percentage of women going for catastrophic expenditure on maternal health care. The likelihood of catastrophic health expenditure on maternal health care decreases with the increase in wealth quintile from poorest to richest. Conclusion: Place of residence, educational status and wealth index plays an important role in determining the catastrophic health expenditure on maternal health care. Further research needs to be done in exploring the factors that leads to inequity of the expenditure used in the utilization of maternal health care.