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For families that have a member with a mental illness, nearly a fifth of monthly household expenditure is spent on health care, on average, according to a study published in March this year.
Because of out-of-pocket expenditure on health care, about 21 per cent of these households dropped below the poverty line, the study found.
The report, Catastrophic Health Expenditure and Poverty Impact Due to Mental Illness in India, published in the Journal of Health Management, highlights the financial impact of mental health care and the need for financial risk protection for households with members suffering from mental illness.
The study uses data from the 76th round of the National Sample Survey, conducted between July and December 2018. During the survey, 6,679 households self-reported a person with mental illness as part of the Persons with Disabilities in India survey.
On average, the 2023 study found that Rs. 2,115 is spent each month on health care by a household if a member has a mental illness. This adds up to 18.1 per cent of the household’s monthly expenditure.
Among affluent households, the monthly expenditure is Rs. 3,754, but the burden is highest among poorest households, where a quarter of the monthly expenditure is on health care.
The expense of mental health care includes both direct and indirect costs. The amounts spent on treatment, medication, travel to hospitals, etc, are direct costs.
Indirect costs include the monetary value of the loss of productivity of patients or caregivers and intangible costs in terms of stress, stigma, etc, borne by those affected.
The study also states that one of the critical factors leading to increased costs of care in lower- and middle-income countries is that people do not receive health care for mental illness, leading to chronicity and suffering.
