Study on cost of treatment of Pancreatic and Gastric cancer patients in India

Health care systems are increasingly burdened with the rising prevalence of cancer and high costs associated with the treatment of this chronic condition. The path towards universal level access to cancer care is real challenge in India’s health sector where the cost of health care in India is predominantly shared through out of pocket expenditure by the ailing person’s household (59 percent) and expenditure on health is equivalent to only 1.2 percent of India’s GDP (MOHFW 2019). As noted in the case of overall health care services (NSSO 2020), the for-profit private health care sector plays a major role in provisioning of cancer care treatment in India. Private health care sector in India provides 60 percent and 58 percent of cancer related inpatient and outpatient treatment respectively.Existing evidence in India shows the cancer affected households were at a risk of economic distress both out of financing of cancer care and due to wage loss arising out of less work participation, when compared other households. Economic burden associated with the cancer treatment is likely to have both short-term and long-term impact on welfare of the welfare of patient and family. The financial burden of cancer will be severe for patients who were economically active with dependent family members and were unable to work during/post treatment. Such patients with unexpected expenses due to cancer treatment is at a higher risk of anxiety, depression, and worse life quality. In this effort, we want to estimate the standard cost of providing treatment for stomach and pancreatic cancers in India and we want to study the dynamics of out of pocket expenditure. Further, this study will analyse the burden on caregiver and opportunity cost in gastric and pancreatic cancer patients in India.