background health literacy presents an enormous challenge in the delivery of effective healthcare and quality outcomes. we evaluated the impact of low health literacy (lhl) on healthcare utilization and healthcare expenditure.   methods database analysis used medical expenditure panel survey (meps) from 2005-2008 which provides nationally representative estimates of healthcare utilization and e...

it is well-established that for a considerable period the united kingdom has spent proportionally less of its gross domestic product (gdp) on health-related services than almost any other comparable country. average european spending on health (as a % of gdp) in the period 1980 to 2013 has been 19% higher than the united kingdom, indicating that comparable countries give far greater fiscal prio...

Background Health literacy presents an enormous challenge in the delivery of effective healthcare and quality outcomes. We evaluated the impact of low health literacy (LHL) on healthcare utilization and healthcare expenditure.   Methods Database analysis used Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) from 2005-2008 which provides nationally representative estimates of healthcare utilization and e...

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...

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...

Background In planning for universal health coverage, many countries have been examining their fiscal decentralization policies with the goal of increasing efficiency and equity via “additionalities.” The concept of “additionality,” when the government of a lower administrative level increases the funding allocated to a particular issue when extra funds are present, is often used in these...

BACKGROUND Predictors of high out-of-pocket household healthcare expenditure are essential for creating effective health system finance policy. In Bangladesh, 63.3% of health expenditure is out-of-pocket and born by households. It is imperative to know what determines household health expenditure. This study aims to investigate the predicting factors of high out-of-pocket household healthcare e...

OBJECTIVE A rapid survey was carried out in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar District of Punjab state in India to ascertain health seeking behavior and out-of-pocket health expenditures. METHODS Using multistage cluster sampling design, 1,008 households (28 clusters x 36 households in each cluster) were selected proportionately from urban and rural areas. Households were selected through a house-to...

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 A growing number of developing countries are developing health insurance schemes that aim to protect households, particularly the poor, from financial catastrophe and impoverishment caused by unaffordable medical care. This paper investigates the extent to which patients suffering from chronic disease in rural China face catastrophic expenditure on healthcare, and how far the New Co-...