Catastrophic healthcare expenditure and poverty related to out-of-pocket payments for healthcare in Bangladesh-an estimation of financial risk protection of universal health coverage.

The Sustainable Development Goals target to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC), including financial risk protection (FRP) among other dimensions. There are four indicators of FRP, namely incidence of catastrophic health expenditure (CHE), mean positive catastrophic overshoot, incidence of impoverishment and increase in the depth of poverty occur for high out-of-pocket (OOP) healthcare spending. OOP spending is the major payment strategy for healthcare in most low-and-middle-income countries, such as Bangladesh. Large and unpredictable health payments can expose households to substantial financial risk and, at their most extreme, can result in poverty. The aim of this study was to estimate the impact of OOP spending on CHE and poverty, i.e. status of FRP for UHC in Bangladesh. A nationally representative Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2010 was used to determine household consumption expenditure and health-related spending in the last 30 days. Mean CHE headcount and its concentration indices (CI) were calculated. The propensity of facing CHE for households was predicted by demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. The poverty headcount was estimated using 'total household consumption expenditure' and such expenditure without OOP payments for health in comparison with the poverty-line measured by cost of basic need. In absolute values, a pro-rich distribution of OOP payment for healthcare was found in urban and rural Bangladesh. At the 10%-threshold level, in total 14.2% of households faced CHE with 1.9% overshoot. 16.5% of the poorest and 9.2% of the richest households faced CHE. An overall pro-poor distribution was found for CHE (CI = -0.064) in both urban and rural households, while the former had higher CHE incidences. The poverty headcount increased by 3.5% (5.1 million individuals) due to OOP payments. Reliance on OOP payments for healthcare in Bangladesh should be reduced for poverty alleviation in urban and rural Bangladesh in order to secure FRP for UHC.

Khan JAM ，Ahmed S ，Evans TG 《-》

Catastrophic healthcare expenditure and impoverishment in tropical deltas: evidence from the Mekong Delta region.

Ahmed S ，Szabo S ，Nilsen K 《International Journal for Equity in Health》

Inequalities in financial risk protection in Bangladesh: an assessment of universal health coverage.

Islam MR ，Rahman MS ，Islam Z ，Nurs CZ ，Sultana P ，Rahman MM ... -  《International Journal for Equity in Health》

Impact of out of pocket payments on financial risk protection indicators in a setting with no user fees: the case of Mauritius.

Nundoochan A ，Thorabally Y ，Monohur S ，Hsu J ... -  《International Journal for Equity in Health》

Assessing the incidence of catastrophic health expenditure and impoverishment from out-of-pocket payments and their determinants in Bangladesh: evidence from the nationwide Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2016.

Out-of-pocket (OOP) payments for healthcare have been increasing steadily in Bangladesh, which deteriorates the financial risk protection of many households. We aimed to investigate the incidence of catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) and impoverishment from OOP payments and their determinants. We employed nationally representative Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2016 data with a sample of 46 076 households. A household that made OOP payments of >10% of its total or 40% of its non-food expenditure was considered to be facing CHE. We estimated the impoverishment using both national and international poverty lines. Multiple logistic models were employed to identify the determinants of CHE and impoverishment. The incidence of CHE was estimated as 24.6% and 10.9% using 10% of the total and 40% of non-food expenditure as thresholds, respectively, and these were concentrated among the poor. About 4.5% of the population (8.61 million) fell into poverty during 2016. Utilization of private facilities, the presence of older people, chronic illness and geographical location were the main determinants of both CHE and impoverishment. The financial hardship due to OOP payments was high and it should be reduced by regulating the private health sector and covering the care of older people and chronic illness by prepayment-financing mechanisms.

Ahmed S ，Ahmed MW ，Hasan MZ ，Mehdi GG ，Islam Z ，Rehnberg C ，Niessen LW ，Khan JAM ... -  《-》