  In this study, I aimed to estimate the incidence of catastrophic health
expenditure and analyze the extent of inequalities in out-of-pocket health
expenditure and its decomposition according to gender, sector, religion and
social groups of the households across Districts of West Bengal. I analysed
health spending in West Bengal, using National Sample Survey 71st round pooled
data suitably represented to estimate up to district level. We measured CHE at
different thresholds when OOP in health expenditure. Gini Coefficients and its
decomposition techniques were applied to assess the degree of inequality in OOP
health expenditures and between different socio geographic factors across
districts. The incidence of catastrophic payments varies considerably across
districts. Only 14.1 percent population of West Bengal was covered under health
coverage in 2014. The inequality in OOP health expenditure for West Bengal has
been observed with gini coefficient of 0.67. Based on the findings from this
analysis, more attention is needed on effective financial protection for people
of West Bengal to promote fairness, with special focus on the districts with
higher inequality. This study only provides the extent of CHE and inequality
across Districts of West Bengal but the causality may be taken in future scope
of study.
