Protecting households from high out-of-pocket (OOP) payments for health care is an important health system goal. High OOP payments can push households into poverty and make them vulnerable to catastrophic health expenditures. This study, based in India, aims to: (a) estimate OOP payments for health and related impoverishment across economic groups; (b) decompose OOP payments and relate the cont...

BACKGROUND Cancer accounts for one-fifth of the total deaths in China and brings heavy financial burden to patients and their families. Chinese government has made strong commitment to develop three types of social medical insurance since 1997 and recently, more attempts were invested to provide better financial protection. To analyze health services utilization and financial burden of insured ...

BACKGROUND Globally, an estimated 54 million people have angina, 16 million of whom are from the WHO South-East Asia region. Despite the increasing burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in South Asia, there is no evidence of an economic burden of angina on households in this region. We investigated the economic burden of angina on households in South Asia. METHODS We applied a novel propensi...

BACKGROUND Road traffic injuries (RTI) are an increasing public health problem in India where out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditures on health are among the highest in the world. We estimated the OOP expenses for RTI in a large city in India. METHODS Information on medical and non-medical expenditure was documented for RTI cases of all ages that reported alive or dead to the emergency departments o...

abstract: background: today one of the main problems low or middle income families face is financing healthcare costs. this article studies the methods of of financing health care costs among hospitalized diabetic patients in different types of insurances. materials & methods: this is a causal-comparative study. the variables consist of comparative (health care costs) and categorical(different ...

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is associated with elevated financial costs, including out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses. Yet, the full burden of OOP expenses in children AD poorly understood. We characterized categories, impact, and associations healthcare US children. An online survey was administered to National Eczema Association members (N=113,502). Inclusion criteria (US resident; respondent age ≥18; s...

Background Measures taken over the past four years in Greece to reduce pharmaceutical expenditure have led to significant price reductions for medicines, but have also changed patient cost-sharing rates for prescription drugs. This study attempts to capture the resulting increase in patients’ out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses for prescription drugs during the 2011-2014 period.   Methods The authors ...

BACKGROUND Nearly one in three Americans are financially burdened by their medical expenses. To mitigate financial distress, experts recommend routine physician-patient cost conversations. However, the content and incidence of these conversations are unclear, and rigorous definitions are lacking. We sought to develop a novel set of cost conversation definitions, and determine the impact of defi...

INTRODUCTION The free maternal health policy was implemented in Ghana in 2008 under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). The policy sought to eliminate out of pocket (OOP) payments and enhance the utilisation of maternal health services. It is unclear whether the policy had altered OOP payments for services. The study explored views on costs and actual OOP payments during pregnancy. The...

BACKGROUND In 2008, specialty medications accounted for 15.1% of total pharmacy benefit medication spending, and per member expenditures have increased by 11.1% annually from 2004 to 2008 within a commercially insured population of 8 million members. Insurers face increasing pressure to control specialty medication expenditures and to rely on increasing member cost share through creation of a f...