A Study on the Determinants of Indirect Expenditure on Cancer Treatment among the Poor in Coimbatore: A Logistic Regression Approach

Abstract

A nation's health policy should, fundamentally, address the questions of cost, access and quality in health care. A free market of medical care relies on the notions of perfect information and perfect competition. Yet, the potient ususally does not have correct information on financial impact of a disease. Cancer is one such disease, where it is the second most common cause of morbidity and mortality in the world tody after cardiovascular problems. In India cancer is leading cause of death with about 1.5 to 2 million cases at anytime to which 7 lack new cases are added every year with 3 lakhs deaths. It is clear that most cancer patients in india reel under the pressure of expensive treatment. The very diagnosis of this incurable disease spells worries for a cancer patients family. Although the Indian government does provide free/subsidized treatment at the cancer centres, a patient has to go for expensive advanced-level treatment to increase his changes of survival. The nature of the problem and the required variables naturally call for a micro-level empricial investigation, especially with cancer subjects who are going to government hospital for treatment ie., Coimbatore, as units of analysis. Therefore, it was decided to conduct this study in an urban setting of Tamil Nadu state, India. No published studies are available about the city ever before regarding the current topic. There is a lack of information about the financial burden of major illness like cancer on patient and their families. An understanding of the out-of pocket expenditures required for cancer care can improve the health care delivery process in India, both for the patients and families on one side, and the health professionals and administrators on the other side. Therefore, it is important to study the cost of cancer treatment for the patients so that advance measure may be taken to control this havoc in near future. In view of these, attempts have been made to study the cost of treatment, source of payment and the problems of insurance.  In this background the study aims to analyze the total indirect expenditure spent by the cancer patients for their treatment in coimbatore.