Financial protection in health revisited: Is catastrophic health spending underestimated for service- or disease-specific analysis?

Economists originally developed methods to assess financial catastrophe using total or aggregate out-of-pocket health spending. Aggregate out-of-pocket health spending is financially catastrophic when it exceeds a fixed proportion (i.e., threshold) of a household's total income or expenditure in a given period. However, these methods are now applied to assess financial catastrophe in disease- or service-specific rather than aggregate out-of-pocket health spending without using disease- or service-specific thresholds. This paper argues that not using disease- or service-specific thresholds for such assessments is misleading and underestimates the burden of financial catastrophe, especially among households from poorer backgrounds. It then proposed disease- or service-specific catastrophic payment thresholds, applied them to Nigeria and found that financial catastrophe was underestimated for the five service groups considered. The paper stresses the importance of using disease- or service-specific thresholds and avoiding unadjusted thresholds, which may leave poorer households behind as financially protected.

Spending on nucleos(t)ide analogues for hepatitis B in medicaid beneficiaries: 2012-2021.

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Treatment of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) with nucelos(t)ide analogues (NA) can improve outcomes, but NA treatment is expensive for insurance plans. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services database was assessed from 2012 to 2021 to assess the use of NA for CHB in patients on Medicaid. Data extracted included the number of claims, units, and costs of each agent stratified by originator and generic. RESULTS: Over the study period, 1.9 billion USD was spent on NA, with spending peaking in 2016 at $289 million US, which has subsequently decreased. Lower expenditures since 2016 have been associated with increased use of generics. The use of generic tenofovir or entecavir led to savings of $669 million US over the study period. CONCLUSIONS: Increased generic use has significantly reduced expenditures for NA drugs; policy shifts towards generic drug use may help with sustainability.

Impact of health spending on hospitalization rates in Baltic countries: a comparative analysis.

INTRODUCTION: This study examines the association between healthcare indicators and hospitalization rates in three high-income European countries, namely Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, from 2015 to 2020. METHOD: We used a sex-stratified generalized additive model (GAM) to investigate the impact of select healthcare indicators on hospitalization rates, adjusted by general economic status-i.e., gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. RESULTS: Our findings indicate a consistent decline in hospitalization rates over time for all three countries. The proportion of health expenditure spent on hospitals, the number of physicians and nurses, and hospital beds were not statistically significantly associated with hospitalization rates. However, changes in the number of employed medical doctors per 10,000 population were statistically significantly associated with changes of hospitalization rates in the same direction, with the effect being stronger for males. Additionally, higher GDP per capita was associated with increased hospitalization rates for both males and females in all three countries and in all models. CONCLUSIONS: The relationship between healthcare spending and declining hospitalization rates was not statistically significant, suggesting that the healthcare systems may be shifting towards primary care, outpatient care, and on prevention efforts.

Effectiveness of public health spending: Investigating the moderating role of governance using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

BACKGROUND: The link between public health spending (PHS) and population health outcomes (PHO) has been extensively studied. However, in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the moderating effects of governance in this relationship are little known. Furthermore, studies have focused on mortality as the main health outcome. This study contributes to this literature by investigating the moderating role of governance in the relationship by simultaneously assessing three dimensions of governance (corruption control, government effectiveness and voice accountability) using disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) as a measure of outcomes. METHODS: The study applies the two-stage moderation approach using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to panel data from 43 SSA nations from 2013 to 2019. The study also uses domestic general government health expenditure (DGGHE) as an independent variable and disability-adjusted life years (DALY) as the dependent variable in this relationship. RESULTS: The analysis reveals that DGGHE affects DALY negatively and that governance improves the effect of DGGHE on DALY, with bigger improvements among countries with worse governance. CONCLUSION: These findings provide evidence that good governance is crucial to the effectiveness of PHS in SSA nations. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries should improve governance to improve population health.

Family out-of-pocket expenditure for type 2 diabetes mellitus care and percentage of family income.

BACKGROUND: Type 2 diabetes has economic implications involving family income and out-of-pocket spending. OBJECTIVE: Determine family out-of-pocket expenditure for type 2 diabetes mellitus care and percentage of family income. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Study of family out-of-pocket spending in families with patients with type 2 diabetes treated at primary care level. Out-of-pocket expenses included expenses for transportation, food-drinks, and external medications. Family income corresponded to the total economic income contributed by family members. The percentage of out-of-pocket spending in relation to family income was identified with the relationship between these two variables. Statistical analysis included averages and percentages. RESULTS: The annual family out-of-pocket expenditure on transportation was $2,621.24, the family out-of-pocket expenditure on food and beverages was $1,075.67, and the family out-of-pocket expenditure on external medications was $722.08. The total annual family out-of-pocket expense was $4,418.89 and corresponds to 4.73% of family income. CONCLUSION: The family out-of-pocket expense in the family with a patient with diabetes mellitus 2 was $4,418.89 and represents 4.73% of the family income.

ANTECEDENTES: La diabetes tipo 2 tiene implicaciones económicas en el ingreso familiar y el gasto de bolsillo. OBJETIVO: Determinar el gasto de bolsillo familiar en la atención de la diabetes mellitus tipo 2 y el porcentaje que representa en el ingreso familiar. MATERIAL Y MÉTODOS: Estudio de gasto de bolsillo de las familias con pacientes con diabetes tipo 2 atendidos en el primer nivel de atención. El gasto de bolsillo familiar incluyó gasto en traslado, alimentos-bebidas y medicamentos externos. El ingreso familiar correspondió al total de ingresos económicos aportados por los miembros de la familia. El porcentaje del gasto de bolsillo con relación al ingreso familiar se identificó con la relación entre estas dos variables. El análisis estadístico incluyó promedios y porcentajes. RESULTADOS: El gasto de bolsillo familiar anual en transporte fue de $2621.24, en alimentos y bebidas fue de $1075.67 y en medicamentos externos fue de $722.08. El gasto familiar de bolsillo total anual fue de $4418.89 y correspondió a 4.73 % del ingreso familiar. CONCLUSIÓN: El gasto de bolsillo en las familias con un paciente con diabetes mellitus tipo 2 fue de $4418.89 y representó 4.73 % del ingreso familiar.

Incidence of catastrophic health spending in Indonesia: insights from a Household Panel Study 2018-2019.

BACKGROUND: Indonesia implemented one of the world's largest single-payer national health insurance schemes (the Jaminan Kesehatan Nasional or JKN) in 2014. This study aims to assess the incidence of catastrophic health spending (CHS) and its determinants and trends between 2018 and 2019 by which time JKN enrolment coverage exceeded 80%. METHODS: This study analysed data collected from a two-round cross-sectional household survey conducted in ten provinces of Indonesia in February-April 2018 and August-October 2019. The incidence of CHS was defined as the proportion of households with out-of-pocket (OOP) health spending exceeding 10% of household consumption expenditure. Chi-squared tests were used to compare the incidences of CHS across subgroups for each household characteristic. Logistic regression models were used to investigate factors associated with incurring CHS and the trend over time. Sensitivity analyses assessing the incidence of CHS based on a higher threshold of 25% of total household expenditure were conducted. RESULTS: The overall incidence of CHS at the 10% threshold fell from 7.9% to 2018 to 4.4% in 2019. The logistic regression models showed that households with JKN membership experienced significantly lower incidence of CHS compared to households without insurance coverage in both years. The poorest households were more likely to incur CHS compared to households in other wealth quintiles. Other predictors of incurring CHS included living in rural areas and visiting private health facilities. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that the overall incidence of CHS decreased in Indonesia between 2018 and 2019. OOP payments for health care and the risk of CHS still loom high among JKN members and among the lowest income households. More needs to be done to further contain OOP payments and further research is needed to investigate whether CHS pushes households below the poverty line.

Future health expenditure in the BRICS countries: a forecasting analysis for 2035.

BACKGROUND: Accelerated globalization especially in the late 1980s has provided opportunities for economic progress in the world of emerging economies. The BRICS nations' economies are distinguishable from other emerging economies due to their rate of expansion and sheer size. As a result of their economic prosperity, health spending in the BRICS countries has been increasing. However, health security is still a distant dream in these countries due to low public health spending, lack of pre-paid health coverage, and heavy out-of-pocket spending. There is a need for changing the health expenditure composition to address the challenge of regressive health spending and ensure equitable access to comprehensive healthcare services. OBJECTIVE: Present study examined the health expenditure trend among the BRICS from 2000 to 2019 and made predictions with an emphasis on public, pre-paid, and out-of-pocket expenditures for 2035. METHODS: Health expenditure data for 2000-2019 were taken from the OECD iLibrary database. The exponential smoothing model in R software (ets ()) was used for forecasting. RESULTS: Except for India and Brazil, all of the BRICS countries show a long-term increase in per capita PPP health expenditure. Only India's health expenditure is expected to decrease as a share of GDP after the completion of the SDG years. China accounts for the steepest rise in per capita expenditure until 2035, while Russia is expected to achieve the highest absolute values. CONCLUSION: The BRICS countries have the potential to be important leaders in a variety of social policies such as health. Each BRICS country has set a national pledge to the right to health and is working on health system reforms to achieve universal health coverage (UHC). The estimations of future health expenditures by these emerging market powers should help policymakers decide how to allocate resources to achieve this goal.

National Health Spending, Health-Care Resources, Service Utilization, and Health Outcomes.

Cross-national studies of the linkage of health-care spending with population health have found surprisingly limited evidence of benefits. In this study, we investigated associations between national health spending and key health resources (numbers of hospital beds, physicians, and nurses) and utilization of cost-effective health services (antenatal care, attendance of trained staff at childbirth, and measles vaccination), sometimes in ways that curtail the benefits of that expenditure. Using annual panel data from 1990-2014 covering 140 countries, we show that variation in health spending as a share of gross domestic product is not associated with decreased mortality rates. It is also very weakly associated with increased health-care resources and health service utilization (elasticity smaller than 0.08), with the association being close to 0 in low-income countries. In addition, countries with a higher share of out-of-pocket spending have a significantly lower level of health resources and service utilization. These findings, rather than the ineffectiveness of health care, could explain the lack of impact of health spending. In contrast, gross domestic product per capita is significantly associated with increased health resources, a higher rate of service utilization, and lower mortality rates, suggesting that income is an important determinant of public health.

Trends in drug revenue among major pharmaceutical companies: A 2010-2019 cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Over the past 2 decades there has been a substantial increase in the number of new cancer medicines; this has been accompanied by a dramatic rise in drug costs. It is unknown how these trends impact the revenue of the pharmaceutical sector. METHODS: Retrospective cohort study to characterize temporal trends of revenue generated from cancer medicines as a proportion of total drug revenue among 10 large pharmaceutical companies from 2010 to 2019. Itemized product-sales data publicly available through company websites or annual filings were used to identify annual drug revenue. Revenue data were adjusted for inflation and converted to 2019 US dollars. RESULTS: During the study period, cumulative annual revenue generated from cancer drugs increased by 70%: from $55.8 billion to $95.1 billion, while cumulative revenue from nononcology drugs decreased 18%: from $342.2 billion to $281.5 billion. The proportion of total drug revenue generated from oncology drugs increased substantially over the study period: from 14% in 2010 to 25% in 2019 (τ = 1.0, P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Among 10 of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, revenues generated from the sale of cancer drugs have increased by 70% over the past decade, while revenues from other medicines have decreased by 18%. Revenues from cancer drugs now account for one-quarter of the net revenues from these companies. Further work is needed to understand if this increase in sales revenue reflects industry profit, and to what extent increased spending has translated into improvements in patient and population outcomes.

How equitable is health spending on curative services and institutional delivery in Malawi? Evidence from a quasi-longitudinal benefit incidence analysis.

BACKGROUND: Malawi is one of a handful of countries that had resisted the implementation of user fees, showing a commitment to providing free healthcare to its population even before the concept of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) acquired global popularity. Several evaluations have investigated the effects of key policies, such as the essential health package or performance-based financing, in sustaining and expanding access to quality health services in the country. Understanding the distributional impact of health spending over time due to these policies has received limited attention. Our study fills this knowledge gap by assessing the distributional incidence of public and overall health spending between 2004 and 2016. METHODS: We relied on a Benefit Incidence Analysis (BIA) to measure the socioeconomic inequality of public and overall health spending on curative services and institutional delivery across different health facility typologies. We used data from household surveys and National Health Accounts. We used a concentration index (CI) to determine the health benefits accrued by each socioeconomic group. RESULTS: Socioeconomic inequality in both public and overall health spending substantially decreased over time, with higher inequality observed in overall spending, non-public health facilities, curative health services, and at higher levels of care. Between 2004 and 2016, the inequality in public spending on curative services decreased from a CI of 0.037 (SE 0.013) to a CI of 0.004 (SE 0.011). Whiles, it decreased from a CI of 0.084 (SE 0.014) to a CI of 0.068 (SE 0.015) for overall spending in the same period. For institutional delivery, inequality in public and overall spending decreased between 2004 and 2016 from a CI of 0.032 (SE 0.028) to a CI of -0.057 (SE 0.014) and from a CI of 0.036 (SE 0.022) to a CI of 0.028 (SE 0.018), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Through its free healthcare policy, Malawi has reduced socioeconomic inequality in health spending over time, but some challenges still need to be addressed to achieve a truly egalitarian health system. Our findings indicate a need to increase public funding for the health sector to ensure access to care and financial protection.