Title: Determinants of health seeking behaviour among low income households of Punjab: does health insurance coverage matter?

Authors: Hari Babu Singu; Ramanpreet Kaur

Addresses: Mittal School of Business, Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar-Delhi, G.T. Road, Phagwara, Punjab, India ' Mittal School of Business, Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar-Delhi, G.T. Road, Phagwara, Punjab, India

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to study what determines the health seeking behaviour among the poor and further, whether the insurance coverage differs in seeking the treatment. The authors adopted descriptive study by using a semi-structured questionnaire canvassed among 227 low income households in rural and urban settings of Jalandhar, Amritsar and Moga districts of Punjab. The major results are that the insurance coverage has significant influence on the type of treatment preferred by the low-income households. The households belonging to the rural area and no insurance coverage preferred to take the treatment following home remedies and visit to clinic near the home. However, government hospitals are also preferred when the number of dependents are more than three and have no insurance coverage. The analysis reveals that the health insurance coverage for the low-income people supports them for a better-quality healthcare at affordable cost.

Keywords: health seeking behaviour; micro health insurance; multinomial regression; Punjab.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPSPM.2017.087674

International Journal of Public Sector Performance Management, 2017 Vol.3 No.4, pp.447 - 462

Received: 30 Mar 2017
Accepted: 04 May 2017
Published online: 30 Oct 2017 *

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