Does remittance protect the household from catastrophic health expenditure in India

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the dynamic nature of the catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) on remittances receiving households between 2005 and 2012 in India.

Design/methodology/approach

The study adopted Xu’s (2005) definition of catastrophic health-care expenditure. And also used binary logistic regression to examine the effects of remittances being received on CHE in households across India. The data were drawn from the two rounds of the India Human Development Survey conducted by the University of Maryland, the USA, and the National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi, India.

Findings

The results show that the percentage of households received remittances, and that the amount of remittances received has substantially increased during 2005 and 2012, though variation is evident by socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of the household. Apparently, the variation (percentage of households received remittances) is more pronounced for factors such as household size, number of 60+ elderly, sectors and by regions. Household’s catastrophic health spending and remittances being received show a statistically significant association. Households which received remittances during both the time showed the lowest likelihood (AOR:0.82; p-value < 0.10; 95% CI:0.64–1.03) to experience catastrophic health spending.

Originality/value

The paper identified the research gap to examine the occurrence of catastrophic health spending by remittances receiving status of the household using a novel panel data set.

Citation

Das, M., Kumar, K. and Khan, J. (2020), "Does remittance protect the household from catastrophic health expenditure in India", International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, Vol. 16 No. 4, pp. 481-493. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMHSC-03-2020-0023