BACKGROUND Out-of-pocket expenses, medical and non-medical, have an impoverishing effect on the family. OBJECTIVE Determine non-medical out-of-pocket expenses incurred during out-patient attendance for primary care services. METHODS A descriptive survey was undertaken at a rural medical college using interviewer-administered questionnaire to parents of children <6 years over a period of 6 w...

BACKGROUND The health insurance system in Taiwan is comprised of public health insurance and private health insurance. The public health insurance, called "universal national health insurance" (NHI), was first established in 1995 and amended in 2011. The goal of this study is to provide an updated description of several important aspects of health insurance in Taiwan. Of special interest are ho...

BACKGROUND Evidence supporting nonstatin lipid-lowering therapy in atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk reduction is variable. We aim to examine nonstatin utilization and expenditures in the United States between 2002 and 2013. METHODS AND RESULTS We used the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey database to estimate national trends in nonstatin use and cost (total and out-of-pocket, adjust...

BACKGROUND Vietnam introduced the Health Care Fund for the Poor in 2002 to increase access to health care and reduce the financial burden of health expenditure faced by the poor and ethnic minorities. It is often argued that effects of financing reforms take a long time to materialize. This study evaluates the short-term impact of the program to determine if pro-poor financing programs can achi...

Background: Out-of-pocket and informal payments are considered as 2 most important topics for equity in health care financing. Therfore, this study was conducted to systematically review and meta-analyze the status of these payments in Iran's health care system. &nbsp;&nbsp; Methods: Required data were collected through searching the following key terms: &quot;Unofficial&quot;, &quot;Informal ...

Background: The National Health Accounts keep track of all healthcare related activities from the beginning (i.e. resource provision), to the end (i.e. service provision). This study was conducted to address following questions: How is the Iranian health system funded? Who distribute the funds? For what services are the funds spent on?, What service providers receive the funds? Methods: The...

This study explored catastrophic health expenditure in China, due to out-of-pocket payments for dental care, and its associated individual- and contextual-level factors. We pooled data from 31,566 adults who participated in the third National Oral Health Survey with province-level data from different sources. We defined catastrophic dental health expenditure (CDHE) as payments for dental servic...

Microfinance is the provision of financial services for the poor. Health program through microfinance has the potential to address several access barriers to health. We report the design and baseline findings of a multi-site non-randomized evaluation of the effect of a health program on the members of two microfinance organizations from Karnataka and Gujarat states of India. Villages identified...

BACKGROUND Health indicators such as life expectancy at birth, infant mortality rate etc. are some of the tools to measure the social development of that country. Due to advancement in technology, disease profile etc. expenditure on health care, especially tertiary care treatment is increasing day by day, and is beyond the reach of common people. This is one of the hindrances in the social deve...

BACKGROUND Unequal geographical distribution of medical care resources and insufficient healthcare coverage have been two long-standing problems with Taiwan's public health system. The implementation of National Health Insurance (NHI) attempted to mitigate the inequality in health care use. This study examines the degree to which Taiwan's National Health Insurance (NHI) has reduced out-of-pocke...