Background In planning for universal health coverage, many countries have been examining their fiscal decentralization policies with the goal of increasing efficiency and equity via “additionalities.” The concept of “additionality,” when the government of a lower administrative level increases the funding allocated to a particular issue when extra funds are present, is often used in these...

BACKGROUND While healthcare costs for rotavirus gastroenteritis requiring hospitalization may be burdensome on households in Malaysia, exploration on the distribution and catastrophic impact of these expenses on households are lacking. OBJECTIVES We assessed the economic burden, levels and distribution of catastrophic healthcare expenditure, the poverty impact on households and inequities rel...

Protection from care–related catastrophic expenditures through equitable access to affordable health services is the hallmark of a pro–poor health policy [1]. Over the past two decades, the Government of Ethiopia has implemented policies with a clear intent of reducing poverty and improving the daily lives of its citizens, especially the poor [2]. Guided by these cross cutting pro– poor governm...

BACKGROUND Catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) puts a heavy disease burden on patients' families, aggravating income-related inequality. In an attempt to reduce the financial risks of rural families incurring CHE, China began the New Rural Cooperative Medical System (NCMS) on a trial basis in 2003 and has raised the reimbursement rates continuously since then. Based on statistical data about ...

OBJECTIVE This study presents estimates of the impact of changes in California tobacco control funding on healthcare expenditures for 2012-2016 under four funding scenarios. METHODS Smoking prevalence is projected using a cointegrated time series regression model. Smoking-attributable healthcare expenditures are estimated with econometric models that use a prevalence-based annual cost approac...

PURPOSE Overall and specific class trends in systemic antifungal expenditures in various U.S. healthcare settings from 2005 through 2015 were evaluated. METHODS Systemic antifungal expenditures from January 1, 2005, through December 31, 2015, were obtained from the QuintilesIMS National Sales Perspective database, which provides a statistically valid projection of medication purchases from mu...

The South African Government recently set targets to reduce cardiovascular disease (CVD) by lowering salt consumption. We conducted an extended cost-effectiveness analysis (ECEA) to model the potential health and economic impacts of this salt policy. We used surveys and epidemiologic studies to estimate reductions in CVD resulting from lower salt intake. We calculated the average out-of-pocket ...

Introduction: Informal caregivers are family, friends, and neighbors who provide assistance to people in need of care without pay. Caregivers play a critical role patients’ care. Care provided by informal is often seen as lower cost substitute formal their contributions assumed take strain off the system. Caregivers, however, report significant consequences such decline health higher use health...

BACKGROUND Cirrhosis is a chronic disease with high morbidity and mortality. Few studies have evaluated healthcare resource use in patients with cirrhosis. OBJECTIVE We aimed to describe the point prevalence of cirrhosis on 31 December 2012 and the population-level distribution of healthcare resource use and expenditures in a non-selected population of patients with cirrhosis, stratified by w...