Declining Free Healthcare and Rising Treatment Costs in India: An Analysis of National Sample Surveys, 1986-2004

This paper focuses on the trends in health seeking behaviour of people and the cost of treatment by examining the National Sample Survey data pertaining to three rounds -1986-87, 1995-96 and 2004. With variation across states, it is found that treatment seeking from public providers has declined and preference for private providers increased over the period. Although overall health seeking behaviour has improved for males and females, a significant percentage of people, more in rural than in urban areas, do not seek treatment due to lack of accessibility and a perception that illness is not serious enough to require treatment.