Measuring Income Elasticity of Healthcare-Seeking Behavior in India: A Conditional Quantile Regression Approach

The paper evaluates the differential effect of income on healthcare payments according to the extent of need by estimating the income elasticity of out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditure using the conditional quantile regression (CQR) method in the Indian context. The study uses two recent NSSO waves of household health expenditure surveys. The estimates of elasticity prove that health expenditure is a necessity for households in both waves. However, strengthening income causes the CQR estimates to yield income elasticity of a lower magnitude during the second wave. The results indicate that in times of severe health crisis needing expensive treatments, any income increase would cause a higher allocation in curative expenditure than minor healthcare needs, leading to catastrophic consequences to the economically underprivileged and many among them to impoverish. Ailment episodes needing costly treatments are income inelastic than less expensive treatments when insurance is accessible, showing that risk pooling schemes protect households against economic distortion of heavy healthcare payments. Seeking private-provided treatment is associated with a higher magnitude of income elasticity at the lower expenditure level, revealing that commercial health institutions are preferred for financially low-cost healthcare needs. In contrast, non-communicable ailment generates lower elasticity value for similar requirements, unveiling the desire to procrastinate the treatment.