Abstract:
Health can be recognizing as a main factor, which directly governs the overall economy and
development of a nation. This article reviews the household healthcare expenditures using
demographic characteristic of the household. Even though a number of studies have
examined on this subject in Sri Lanka, Their expenditure patterns and household
characteristics are not separately analyze based on recent data. This paper expects to bridge
that knowledge gap. This study use Sri Lankan household income and expenditure survey of
2016(HIES). Our result findings demonstrated that a person living in urban area would spend
higher health expenses in all health categories compare to rural and estate sector. When
comparing gender, female spends more on healthcare in every considered factor and over 60
years old spends extra on healthcare compared to other age groups. This study further
confirms that age and gender of the household are closely associated with healthcare
expenditure.
