Background. The financial effect of households’ out-of-pocket payments (OOP) on access and use health systems has been extensively studied in the literature, especially emerging or developing countries. However, it subject little research European countries, is almost nonexistent after crisis 2008. aim work to analyze incidence intensity catastrophism derived from Spanish associated with care d...

The southern state of Kerala, India was seriously affected by a chikungunya epidemic in 2007. As this outbreak was the first of its kind, the morbidity incurred by the epidemic was a challenge to the state's public health system. A cross sectional survey was conducted in five districts of Kerala that were seriously affected by the epidemic, using a two-stage cluster sampling technique to select...

BACKGROUND Many patients are burdened by prescription costs, yet it is not clear whether brand-named fixed-dose combination medicines are less expensive than the sum of the cost of their generic components. METHODS We used the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, a rigorously conducted, nationally representative, population-based survey, to examine the out-of-pocket and third party costs associa...

BACKGROUND Out of pocket (OOP) health spending can potentially expose households to risk of incurring large medical bills, and this may impact on their welfare. This work investigates the effect of catastrophic OOP on the incidence and depth of poverty in Malawi. METHODS The paper is based on data that was collected from 12,271 households that were interviewed during the third Malawi integrat...

Abstract: We study the impact of the introduction of one of the major pillars of the social insurance system in the United States: the introduction of Medicare in 1965. Our results suggest that, in its first 10 years, the establishment of universal health insurance for the elderly had no discernible impact on elderly mortality. However, we find a substantial reduction in the elderly’s exposure ...

OBJECTIVE In China, despite a high coverage rate, health insurance is not used for all illness episodes. Our goal is to identify subjects' characteristics associated with insurance utilization and the association between utilization and medical expenditure. METHODS A survey was conducted in January and February of 2012. 2093 middle-aged and elderly subjects (45 years old and above) were surve...

BACKGROUND In the Indian context, a household's caste characteristics are most relevant for identifying its poverty and vulnerability status. Inadequate provision of public health care, the near-absence of health insurance and increasing dependence on the private health sector have impoverished the poor and the marginalised, especially the scheduled tribe population. This study examines caste-b...

BACKGROUND In India, a zidovudine-based regimen is preferred as the first-line drug treatment for HIV, despite high rates of drug toxicity. This study estimates the treatment costs for HIV. METHODS Eligible patients were enrolled from Antiretroviral Therapy Center, Christian Medical College, India. Baseline demographic and clinical characteristics, medical and nonmedical expenditure, and lost...