BACKGROUND This study aimed at identifying components of the household health costs. METHODS This study was a qualitative research conducted in two main phases. The first phase consisted of interviews with sample households selected in eight provinces of Iran. They were to identify components of the household health costs. In the second phase, components were determined as direct, indirect an...

This paper reports the results of a `cost-of-illness' study of the socio-economic costs of back pain in the UK. It estimates the direct health care cost of back pain in 1998 to be £1632 million. Approximately 35% of this cost relates to services provided in the private sector and thus is most likely paid for directly by patients and their families. With respect to the distribution of cost acros...

During 1990, health expenditures as a share of gross national product rose to 12.2 percent, up from 11.6 percent in 1989. This dramatic increase is the second largest increase in the past three decades. The national health expenditure estimates presented in this article document rapidly rising health care costs and provide a context for understanding the health care financing crisis facing the ...

BACKGROUND Indigenous peoples often find it difficult to access appropriate mainstream primary health care services. Securing access to primary health care services requires more than just services that are situated within easy reach. Ensuring the accessibility of health care for Indigenous peoples who are often faced with a vast array of additional barriers including experiences of discriminat...

Recently, the Department of Defense replaced its traditional fee-for-service insurance plan for military health care beneficiaries with an HMO/PPO hybrid. Using survey and claims data, we compare changes in costs over two years at sites that implemented this initiative (CRI) with changes at matched control sites. The results indicate that CRI substantially raised per beneficiary government cost...

A desire to enhance protection against health care costs and improve equity of access to health care lies at the core of many health sector financing initiatives. Until recently, international debates about financing and health equity have focused primarily on mechanisms to promote equity in relation to very specific elements of health systems. However, in recent years there has been growing in...

BACKGROUND The seasonal variation of influenza and influenza-like illness (ILI) is well known. However, studies assessing the factual direct costs of ILI for an entire population are rare. METHODS In this register study, we analyzed the seasonal variation of ILI-related healthcare visits and hospital admissions for children aged 2 to 17 years, and the resultant parental absence from work, for...

CONTEXT Although Colombia partially liberalized its abortion law in 2006, many abortions continue to occur outside the law and result in complications. Assessing the costs to the health care system of safe, legal abortions and of treating complications of unsafe, illegal abortions has important policy implications. METHODS The Post-Abortion Care Costing Methodology was used to produce estimat...

BACKGROUND This study aimed to determine the societal economic burden and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients in the UK. METHODS A bottom-up cost-of-illness, cross-sectional, retrospective analysis of 74 patients was conducted aiming to estimate the economic impact of CF. Data on demographic characteristics, health resource utilisation, informal care, produ...