Studying Healthcare Affordability during an Economic Recession: The Case of Greece.
Int J Environ Res Public Health
; 17(21)2020 10 24.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-33114353
ABSTRACT
The significant deterioration of economic prosperity in Greece during the economic crisis decreased patients' ability to pay. Thus, the objective of this study is to determine the factors affecting healthcare affordability in Greece during an economic recession. This study used data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) 2016. The sample consisted of 18,255 households. Healthcare affordability was regressed on geographic characteristics as well as several variables that refer to the households' financial condition. Region of residence, ability to make ends meet, and capacity to cope with unexpected financial expenses were found to be statistically significant. Using sample sizes of 1000 and 1096 adults, respectively, the European Quality of Life Surveys (EQLS) of 2007 and 2016 were also used as data sources. Economic crisis was expressed with a dummy variable (1) 0 2007, and (2) 1 2016. Difficulty in responding to healthcare costs was regressed on survey year and several demographic, socioeconomic, and health characteristics, revealing that individuals were more likely to face difficulties in responding to healthcare costs during the economic crisis. These results confirm the mechanism on the basis of which economic crises affect healthcare access primarily through the effects of demand-side barriers.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Calidad de Vida
/
Recesión Económica
Tipo de estudio:
Health_economic_evaluation
Límite:
Adult
/
Humans
País como asunto:
Europa
Idioma:
En
Año:
2020
Tipo del documento:
Article