BACKGROUND One common challenge to social systems is achieving equity in financial contributions and preventing financial loss. Because of the large and unpredictable nature of some costs, achieving this goal in the health system presents important and unique problems. The present study investigated the Household Financial Contributions (HFCs) to the health system. METHODS The study investiga...

BACKGROUND The health sector in Lebanon suffers from high levels of spending and is acknowledged to be a source of fiscal waste. Lebanon initiated a series of health sector reforms which aim at containing the fiscal waste caused by high and inefficient public health expenditures. Yet these reforms do not address the issues of health equity in use and coverage of healthcare services, which appea...

Out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditures for healthcare continue to be the most significant means of healthcare issue in the developing world and constitute a large share of their living financial plan (1, 2). The healthcare expenditures are largely unpredictable and usually have a negative impact on the poor households, while large expenditures have catastrophic impacts on household welfare. A sudden ...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the incidence and describe the profile of catastrophic expenditures and impoverishment due to household out-of-pocket payments, comparing the periods before and after the introduction of universal health care coverage (UC). METHODS Secondary data analyses of socioeconomic surveys on nationally representative households pre-UC in 2000 (n = 24,747) and post-UC in 2002 (n =...

BACKGROUND As the world's largest developing country, China has entered into the epidemiological phase characterized by high life expectancy and high morbidity and mortality from chronic diseases. Cardiovascular diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, and malignant tumors have become the leading causes of death since the 1990s. Constant payments for maintaining the health status of a ...

OBJECTIVE Compare patterns of catastrophic health expenditures in 12 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. MATERIAL AND METHODS Prevalence of catastrophic expenses was estimated uniformly at the household level using household surveys. Two types of prevalence indicators were used based on out-of-pocket health expense: a) relative to an international poverty line, and b) relative to th...

Background and purpose: In 2000 World Health Organization (WHO) has announced the fairness of financial contribution to health care costs, as one of the three goals of health systems. However, conducted studies in Iran reflect the dire situation in the context of health equity in terms of financing health care costs. The aim of the present study is to determine the disparities in health expendi...

OBJECTIVE To analyze household health expenditures on children who are beneficiaries of the Medical Insurance for a New Generation (SMNG), program created in 2007 to cover healthcare costs of children without social security born after December 1st, 2006. MATERIALS AND METHODS Using the SMNG National Survey, out-the-pocket and catastrophic spending on child health were calculated using severa...