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Analysis and Critique of household health expenditure studies are pertinent for India where two-third of all households can barely manage to sustain a two square-meal livelihood. In this connection the objectives of the book are to study the determinants of household health expenditures (HHE); to study the gender bias in HHE; and to make a comparative study of preferences for private health care and public health care provisions in Odisha. The study is fully based on primary data. The study found that (a) income has significant influence on HHE; (b) in HHE, there are gender biases in favour of male in rural and urban areas but in tribal area, it is gender neutral; and (c) most of the households in rural and urban areas prefer private health care but the tribal people prefer public health care. Health is a function, not only of medical care but also of the overall integrated development of socio-cultural, economic, educational and political factors. Therefore, to raise the health status and quality of life, a focused approach integrating the development of social, cultural, economical and educational needs to emerge to bring about the overall transformation of a society.

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Himanshu Sekhar Rout is at the Department of Analytical and Applied Economics, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. He teaches Health Economics, Macro Economics and Econometrics. His areas of research are Health Economics, Gender studies, Social Sector and GIs (IPR).

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