Household income and healthcare expenditure in sri lanka

Abstract

Health can be recognizing as a main factor, which directly governs the overall economy and development of a nation. This article reviews the household healthcare expenditures using demographic characteristic of the household. Even though a number of studies have examined on this subject in Sri Lanka, Their expenditure patterns and household characteristics are not separately analyze based on recent data. This paper expects to bridge that knowledge gap. This study use Sri Lankan household income and expenditure survey of 2016(HIES). Our result findings demonstrated that a person living in urban area would spend higher health expenses in all health categories compare to rural and estate sector. When comparing gender, female spends more on healthcare in every considered factor and over 60 years old spends extra on healthcare compared to other age groups. This study further confirms that age and gender of the household are closely associated with healthcare expenditure.