“…More than 40% of hospitalized patients have to borrow money or sell household assets to meet health expenses, and an average of 24% are impoverished in the process (Peters et al, 2004). Other studies have suggested that lower income households are less inclined to seek treatment; also, when compared to their wealthier counterparts, they spend higher proportions of income on health care, and catastrophic expenditure is common (Garg, 1998;Ramaiah et al, 1999;Ranson, 2002;Bhatia and Cleland, 2001).…”