OBJECTIVE This article measures the probability that out-of-pocket expenses in the United States exceed a threshold share of income. It calculates this probability separately by individuals' health condition, income, and elderly status and estimates changes occurring in these probabilities between 2010 and 2013. DATA AND METHOD This article uses nationally representative household survey data...

BACKGROUND This study investigates the effects of a new medical insurance payment system for hospice patients in palliative care programs and analyzes length of survival (LoS) determinants. METHOD At the Pusan National University Hospital hospice center, between January 2015 and April 2016, 276 patients were hospitalized with several diagnosed types of terminal stage cancer. This study separa...

Since 1942, Canada’s Income Tax Act has provided tax relief to taxpayers who spend substantial amounts of their income on out-of-pocket medical expenses. Since 1988, this relief comes in the form of a tax credit, an amount that is directly deductible against income tax payable. Not all medical expenses are eligible. In particular, the statutory scheme excludes some, but not all, medical service...

Out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses for hospitalized patients with chronic liver disease (CLD) poses an economic challenge on affected household in the form of catastrophic health expenditure (CHE), distress financing and impoverishment. OOP Expenses data CLD from Bangladesh is scarce. This study aimed to estimate resulting CHE, impoverishment among CLD. cross-sectional was conducted conveniently sele...

This report focuses on two questions of current interest to policymakers. First, "What percent of U.S. families experience financially burdensome health expenses?" and, second, "What are the determinants of financially burdensome health expenses among U.S. families?" The first question is addressed by examining how the distribution in the United States of families with financially burdensome he...

Janet is a 67-year-old woman with metastatic breast cancer. Despite having insurance, Janet has been saddled with life-altering out-of-pocket expenses from her cancer treatment. In Part I of this two-part series, we described how Janet’s struggle with out-of-pocket expenses was not unique; a growing body of evidence has detailed the negative impact of costs on insured patients receiving cancer ...