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Background Accelerated globalization especially in the late 1980s has provided opportunities for economic progress in the world of emerging economies. The BRICS nations’ economies are distinguishable from other emerging economies due to their rate of expansion and sheer size. As a result of their economic prosperity, health spending in the BRICS countries has been increasing. However, health security is still a distant dream in these countries due to low public health spending, lack of pre-paid health coverage, and heavy out-of-pocket spending. There is a need for changing the health expenditure composition to address the challenge of regressive health spending and ensure equitable access to comprehensive healthcare services. Objective Present study examined the health expenditure trend among the BRICS from 2000 to 2019 and made predictions with an emphasis on public, pre-paid, and out-of-pocket expenditures for 2035. Methods Health expenditure data for 2000–2019 were taken from the OECD iLibrary database. The exponential smoothing model in R software (ets ()) was used for forecasting. Results Except for India and Brazil, all of the BRICS countries show a long-term increase in per capita PPP health expenditure. Only India’s health expenditure is expected to decrease as a share of GDP after the completion of the SDG years. China accounts for the steepest rise in per capita expenditure until 2035, while Russia is expected to achieve the highest absolute values. Conclusion The BRICS countries have the potential to be important leaders in a variety of social policies such as health. Each BRICS country has set a national pledge to the right to health and is working on health system reforms to achieve universal health coverage (UHC). The estimations of future health expenditures by these emerging market powers should help policymakers decide how to allocate resources to achieve this goal.

Socially constructed gender has signifi cant infl uence on the health and Household Health Expenditures (HHE). From the gender and health literatures, three things are clear: most of the studies are macro in nature and based on secondary data; there is lack of research on the issues of gender and health, and out of whatever researches exist, most focus on the female sex; and as health conditions are localised, there is a need for research on the micro aspects of gender and health. In this connection, the present article is a modest attempt to study the gender bias (or unbais) in the HHE based on primary data collected from four districts of Odisha, India, by adopting multi-stage random sampling method. To substantiate the gender bias (or unbais) in health expenditure, multiple regression analysis is used and descriptive statistics are estimated. The result shows that there is a signifi cant difference between the average male and female HHE in rural, urban and combined areas but not in tribal areas. A comparative study of infl uence of gender on HHE in rural and urban areas shows that the infl uence of male on the average HHE in rural areas is more than in urban areas whereas the infl uence of female on it is higher in urban areas. But a comparative study of infl uence of gender on HHE in rural, urban and tribal areas shows that the infl uence of male and female on the average HEE is more in tribal areas than rural and urban areas. To reduce the gender disparity in HHE long-term and sustained improvements in women's and men's health is required. This may be brought out through expansion of education and economic opportunities among men and women. Moreover, a strong mental and attitudinal change in both men and women is essential.

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