Health care seeking and treatment cost in a rural community of West Bengal, India

Background: Availability and accessibility of health care is important for overall health status of any community. Both physical and financial accessibility is equally important. Present study was undertaken to find out the health care seeking, treatment cost and financing option in a rural community of Burdwan district, West Bengal, India.Methods: Community based descriptive observational study was conducted in four villages of Bhatar block of Burdwan district, West Bengal in September-November 2011by interviewing the head of the household with the help of a pre-designed and pre-tested questionnaire.Results: In acute condition and injury most frequently sought health care institution was Primary health centre or government hospital, followed by private practitioners, quack and medicine shop and in chronic illnesses almost equal percentages sought treatment from government and private facilities. In both condition majorities sought treatment from practitioners of modern medicine and very few sought treatment from Ayurveda and Homoeopathic practitioners. They spent about 15% of their family income for treatment. Cost of treatment was more in private facilities. Medicine accounted for 70% of treatment cost followed by investigation and consultation cost. Out of pocket expenditure was the most common financing option (93.6%) and in 5.6% cases they borrowed money or sale assets and in 0.8% cases government health insurance were the financing option.Conclusions: Organization of community based health insurance or government insurance with contribution from public is urgently needed to protect the poor from slipping into poverty and indebtedness.