BACKGROUND The goal of universal health coverage (UHC) requires inter alia that families who get needed health care do not suffer undue financial hardship as a result. This can be measured by the percentage of people in households whose out-of-pocket health expenditures are large relative to their income or consumption. We aimed to estimate the global incidence of catastrophic health spending, ...

Key findings. (1) Health care spending, both public and private, accounted for more than 20 percent of family income for families in the lowest-income quintile, but no more than 16 percent for families in any other income quintile. (2) The Affordable Care Act should reduce, but is unlikely to completely eliminate, some of this inequity through its heavy reliance on federal funding for the Medic...

We use data from the 1985, 1987 and 1991 United States Vital Statistics Linked Infant Birth and Death Records to assess the effect of statelevel economic inequality on an infant’s probability of death. We find that economic inequality is associated with higher neonatal mortality even after we control mother’s age and race and state characteristics that are likely to be associated with both ineq...

Income and price elasticity of demand quantify the responsiveness of markets to changes in income and in prices, respectively. Under the assumptions of utility maximization and preference independence (additive preferences), mathematical relationships between income elasticity values and the uncompensated own and cross price elasticity of demand are here derived using the differential approach ...

BACKGROUND Countdown to 2015 (Countdown) supported countries to produce case studies that examine how and why progress was made toward the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5. Analysing how health-financing data explains improvements in RMNCH outcomes was one of the components to the case studies. METHODS This paper presents a descriptive analysis on health financing from six Countdow...

Consumer-directed health care plans have attracted attention as a method for managing rising health care spending by giving consumers greater financial control over their health care. However, increased cost-sharing--the principal tool used by these plans to achieve lower spending--may also cause patients to consume less care, even when that care is essential. Research studies have found that l...

Countries vary widely with respect to the share of government spending on health, a metric that can serve as a proxy for the extent to which health is prioritized by governments. World Health Organization (WHO) data estimate that, in 2011, health's share of aggregate government expenditure averaged 12% in the 170 countries for which data were available. However, country differences were strikin...

The decline in health insurance coverage among workers from 1979 to 1995 can be accounted for almost entirely by the fact that per capita health care spending rose much more rapidly than personal income during this time period. We simulate health insurance coverage levels for 1996–2005 under alternative assumptions concerning the rate of growth of spending. We conclude that reduction in spendin...

BACKGROUND The Millennium Development Goals call for a 75% reduction in maternal mortality between 1990 and 2015. Skilled birth attendance and emergency obstetric care, including Caesarean section, are two of the most important interventions to reduce maternal mortality. Although international pressure is rising to increase donor assistance for essential health services in developing countries,...