To the Editor: The African region bears more than 24% of the global burden of disease, but has access to less than 1% of the financial resources. [1] Access to healthcare is a significant concern in South Africa (SA), and financial cost is a recognised cause of lack of access to adequate healthcare. Furthermore, increasing healthcare costs affect healthcare decisions taken by poorer households,...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the annual cost of coronary artery disease (CAD) management in Public Health Care System (SUS) and HMOs values in Brazil. METHODS Cohort study, including ambulatory patients with proven CAD. Clinic visits, exams, procedures, hospitalizations and medications were considered to estimate direct costs. Values of appointments and exams were obtained from the SUS and the Medic...

Two provisions of the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program--the Plan for Achieving Self-Support (PASS) and Impairment Related Work Expenses (IRWE)--can have the implicit result of compensating SSI recipients for work expenses they incur. That is, PASS and IRWE can, in effect, shift all or some of a working SSI recipient's expenses from the recipient to the SSI program. This article descri...

This study explores the role of issuance expenses in explaining the fall in stock value for OTC stock offerings that raise cash for debt reduction purposes. It estimates that over half of the sample's −2.79% two-day fall in stock value can be accounted for by issuance expenses when using a lower bound measure of issuance expenses. This estimate contrasts with the one-fifth estimate suggested by...

This article reports on a post-test only cluster randomized controlled trial that assessed the impact of exposure to Child-Optimized Financial Education (COFE) curriculum, delivered within Savings and Lending Communities (SILC) in Uganda, caregivers’ spending school healthcare expenses for children, financial self-efficacy. Participation SILCs with COFE was significantly associated caregivers p...

BACKGROUND Diabetes imposes a huge social and economic impact on nations. However, information on the costs of treating and managing diabetes in developing countries is limited. The aim of this study was to estimate healthcare use and expenditure for diabetes in Bangladesh. METHODS We conducted a matched case-control study between January and July 2014 among 591 adults with diagnosed diabetes...

BACKGROUND Results from a previous multicenter randomized controlled trial (RCT) on preoperative pain neuroscience education (PNE) for lumbar radiculopathy found no significant difference in patient reported outcomes between groups. However, patients who received PNE viewed their surgical experience more favorably and utilized significantly less healthcare compared to those that did not. The pu...

BACKGROUND Since September 2008, an intervention has made it possible to provide free care to children under five in public health facilities in two districts of Burkina Faso. This study evaluated the intervention's impact on household expenses incurred for services (consultations and medications) to the children targeted. METHODS The study is based on a survey of a representative panel of 1,...