health insecurity has emerged as a major concern among health policy-makers particularly in low- and middle-income countries (lmics). it includes the inability to secure adequate healthcare today and the risk of being unable to do so in the future as well as impoverishing healthcare expenditure. the increasing health insecurity among 150 million of the world’s poor has moved social protection i...

BACKGROUND Reductions in smoking in Arizona and California have been shown to be associated with reduced per capita healthcare expenditures in these states compared to control populations in the rest of the US. This paper extends that analysis to all states and estimates changes in healthcare expenditure attributable to changes in aggregate measures of smoking behavior in all states. METHODS ...

BACKGROUND Financial risk protection against the cost of unforeseen healthcare has gained global attention in recent years. Although Ghana implemented a nationwide health insurance scheme with a goal of reducing financial barriers to accessing healthcare and addressing impoverishing effects of out-of-pocket (OOP) healthcare payments, there is a paucity of knowledge on the extent of financial ca...

BACKGROUND Access to appropriate and affordable healthcare is needed to achieve better health outcomes in Africa. However, access to healthcare remains low, especially among the poor. In Zambia, poor access exists despite the policy by the government to remove user fees in all primary healthcare facilities in the public sector. The paper has two main objectives: (i) to examine the factors assoc...

An ageing population and growing prevalence of chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease (CVD) and type 2 diabetes (T2D) are putting increased pressure on healthcare expenditure in Australia. A cost of illness analysis was conducted to assess the potential savings in healthcare expenditure and productivity costs associated with lower prevalence of CVD and T2D resulting from increased in...

This paper analyzes the public healthcare expenditure of Middle Eastern countries in relation to different exogenous explanatory variables, through a panel study involving twelve (12) Middle East countries. More specifically, the study methodology uses panel cointegration, and panel-based error correction models derived from annual data covering the period of 2000 to 2010. The empirical results...

BACKGROUND  Despite the growing chronic disease burden in low- and middle-income countries, there are significant gaps in our understanding of the financial impact of these illnesses on households. As countries make progress towards universal health coverage, specific information is needed about how chronic disease care drives health expenditure over time, and how this spending differs from spe...

The impact of age and sex on health care expenditure has recently become one of the major concerns in many developing countries like Bangladesh. Age and sex differences in the use of health care services can be substantial at several stages of life which are reflected in overall healthcare expenditure. We examined the impact of age and sex of the population on overall healthcare expenditure of ...