Introduction: A newborn infant or neonate is a child under 28 days of life”.1The first 28 days of life is considered as a critical age, where there is a higher chance of neonatal mortality and

morbidity. The most common infections in neonates are congenital herpes, Group B streptococcus, toxoplasmosis and other types of the medical conditions.2  hence, to reduce the neonatal mortality and morbidity preventive steps like appropriate breast feeding and care is required.

Objectives: To know the total health care expenditure incurred during Neonatal period, in the year 2014– 2015 and to know the various factors influencing the health care expenditure for neonates of family residing at Urban Field Practice Area of Ram Nagar of Belagavi city. Methodology: A community based cross–sectional study was carried out among 100 mothers who had delivered their baby within the period of 1st Feb 2015 – last of the Jan 2016 (12 months) using pretested, self administered questionnaire.   The study was conducted at Ram Nagar, a urban Belagavi district, India. A simple random sampling technique (Lottery method) was used to select the participants. Ethical clearance and informed consent were taken from the concerned

authority and participants prior to conduction of study. Data was analyzed using appropriate statistical tools in SPSS 20. Data was presented on tabular and graphical form as per necessity. Result: The majority i.e. 44% of the respondent were belonged to socio economic status of class IV. 89 percent had suffered from illness during the neonatal period out of which 36.4 percent of the participants had suffered from cough, followed by fever i.e. 34.5 percent and very least number of participants  had  suffered  from  Pneumonia  i.e.  6.1  percent.  61.8  percent  of  the respondents sought for the private doctor when their child was ill. The total expenditure spent for the 88 ill neonates was Indian Rs 944949. The per capita expenditure for medicines was the highest i.e. Indian Rs 3140.636 which was 29.24 percentages of the total expenditure. 56.5% of the respondents spent the money from their own pocket for the health care of their neonates;

72.72% of the families had catastrophic health expenditure. Out of the total health expenditure,

78.8% was direct cost and the remaining 21.17 was an indirect cost.

Conclusion: Community health insurance has to be encouraged and the people should be made

aware on the proper utilization of the public health services to reduce the catastrophic health expenditure.