This book is an outcome the doctoral work on health care utilization behaviour of people in Assam. The work is based on both primary and secondary data. Regarding the health status and supply of health care secondary data is available. But, in case of demand for health service, there is no secondary data for rural Assam. So, this study will fill up the gap in that regard to some extent.

The first chapter is an introductory one. In this chapter, background of the study, statement of the problem, objectives, research questions, and methodology are discussed. In the first chapter, literature review is also done. It starts with the health scenario of India on the basis of empirical as well as theoretical literature and how it is dependent on access to health care. There are both empirical as well as theoretical literatures in determining the factors which are responsible in regard of people’s health care utilisation behaviour which have been reviewed.

Second chapter discussed about various health policies introduced in our country as well as our state to improve the health scenario and their impact on rural Assam in the comparison to all India, major Indian states. There has a global comparison also. It also tries to find out the cause of the present health scenario in rural Assam as well as rural Goalpara.

Chapter three is an attempt to give a clear picture about the access to health care in rural Assam as well as rural Goalpara in comparison to all India level and inter-state level of India and inter-district level of Assam. This chapter tries to assess the health care facilities and their critical inputs as per the norms. This chapter is mainly on availability and accessibility component of access to health care.

Fourth, fifth and sixth chapters are based on field survey carried out in this work. Chapter fourth discusses about the need for the field study, methodology used for analysis and socio-economic profile of the households in the study area. In the rest part of the chapter, analysis has been done to find out an answer to the second research question in terms of simple percentage. For deeper insight, in the fifth chapter, econometric analysis about the utilization of health care has been done. Here, the influence of economic and non-economic factors on health care utilization is sought to be assessed using logistic multinomial logit regression models.

In Chapter six, real burden arises from the expenditure occurred due to health care utilization also in terms of ratio of health care expenditure and Monthly Per Capita Consumption Expenditure (MPCE) have been discussed.

Chapter seven, the concluding chapter, summarizes the findings of the study and presents the conclusions drawn from them. Based on these findings and conclusions drawn few policy suggestions are also presented in the final chapter.