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Household Health Care Costs in IndiaTable 2. Estimate of Annual Household Expenditures on RCH andNon-RCH Services, Udaipur District, Rajasthan (in rupees)Urban/RuralIncome GroupType of Health Costs Total Urban Rural Low Medium HighTotal health expenditure per capita 399.1 551.7 320.5 291.3 418.0 595.6Non-RCH expenditure per capita 303.3 394.9 256.1 225.9 313.3 447.9RCH expenditure per capita 95.8 156.7 64.4 65.4 104.7 147.7RCH expenditure per marriedwoman aged 15–49 years 487.0 754.0 356.4 356.0 557.9 690.3Percentage of total household healthexpenditures spent on RCH services 24.0 28.4 20.1 22.5 25.1 24.8partially financed through loans. During the reference period, for every Rs 1000 of healthexpenditure in the sample, Rs 156 was taken on loan to meet health expenditures.Recent Evidences from Udaipur District, Rajasthan 1This section is based on a recent study of household expenditure on RCH care services in Udaipurdistrict of Rajasthan, conducted by the Indian Institute of Health Management Research (IIHMR) incollaboration with the POLICY Project (The Futures Group). The study involved a survey of 1100households (6859 individuals) in 50 villages/urban wards of the district. Of household heads, 7.9% were from scheduled castes (SC) and 27.5% were members of scheduled tribes (ST), reaffirmingthe tribal base of the district. The proportion of ST population is much higher in rural areas (40.6%)than in urban areas (2.1%). The primary purpose of the survey was to estimate the annualhousehold costs for treatment for RCH care as well as basic health problems excluding RCH care.The components for RCH care considered in the survey were antenatal care, childbirth, postnatalcare, family planning, abortion, and reproductive tract infection.The results from the study are summarized in Table 2. To understand the link between healthcare expenditure and the socio-economic status of households, households were ranked inascending order of reported annual per capita income. This ranking was used to assign eachhousehold into one of three income groups. Households in the lowest two income quartilesmake up the first (low) group, households in the third quartile make up the second (middle)group, and households in the highest quartile make up the third (high) group. As revealed inTable 2, estimated per capita household expenditure on health care is Rs 399.1 per year. Asexpected, urban households spend more on health care than did their rural counterparts (Rs551.7 vs Rs 320.5). Similarly, households in higher income groups spent more than those inlower income groups (Rs 595.6 in high-income group compared to Rs 418 and Rs 291.3 inmiddle and low-income groups, respectively).As Table 2 shows, households in Udaipur spent an average of Rs 95.8 per capita or 28% of totalhousehold health expenditures for RCH services. Out-of-pocket expenditures constituted over1This section heavily draws upon Hotchkiss et al. (2000).143