Equity in distribution of public subsidy for noncommunicable diseases among the elderly in India: an application of benefit incidence analysis

BACKGROUND: Rapid ageing of the population and increasing non-communicable diseases (NCDs) among the elderly is one of the major public health challenges in India. To achieve the Universal Health Coverage, ever-growing elderly population should have access to needed healthcare, and they should not face any affordability related challenge. As most of the elderly suffers from NCDs and achieving health-equity is a priority, this paper aims to - study the utilization pattern of healthcare services for treatment of NCDs among the elderly; estimate the burden of out-of-pocket expenditure for the treatment of NCDs among the elderly and analyze the extent of equity in distribution of public subsidy for the NCDs among the elderly. METHODS: National Sample Survey data (71st round) has been used for the study. Exploratory data analysis and benefit incidence analysis have been applied to estimate the utilization, out-of-pocket expenditure and distribution of public subsidy among economic classes. Concentration curves and indices are also estimated. RESULTS: Results show that public-sector hospitalization for NCDs among the elderly has a pro-rich trend in rural India. However, in urban sector, for both inpatient and outpatient care the poorest class has substantial share in utilization of public facilities. Same result is also observed for rural outpatient care. Analysis shows that out-of-pocket expenditure is very high for both medicine and medical care even in public facilities for all economic groups. It is also observed that medicine has the highest share in total medical expenses during treatment of NCDs among the elderly in both the region. Benefit incidence analysis shows that the public subsidy has a pro-rich distribution for inpatient care treatment in both the sectors. In case of outpatient care, subsidy share is the maximum among the richest in the urban sector and in the rural region the poorest class gets the maximum subsidy benefit. CONCLUSIONS: It is evident that a substantial share of the public subsidies is still going to the richer sections for the treatment of NCDs among the elderly. Evidences also suggest that procuring medicines and targeted policies for the elderly are needed to improve utilization and equity in the public healthcare system.