Measuring financial protection in health

Health systems are not just about improving health: good ones also ensure that people are protected from the financial consequences of receiving medical care. Anecdotal evidence suggests health systems often perform badly in this respect, apparently with devastating consequences for households, espe...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Wagstaff, Adam
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Washington, D.C The World Bank 2008
Subjects:
Online Access:
Collection: World Bank E-Library Archive - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
LEADER 02189nmm a2200361 u 4500
001 EB002098155
003 EBX01000000000000001238245
005 00000000000000.0
007 cr|||||||||||||||||||||
008 221013 ||| eng
100 1 |a Wagstaff, Adam 
245 0 0 |a Measuring financial protection in health  |h Elektronische Ressource  |c Wagstaff, Adam 
260 |a Washington, D.C  |b The World Bank  |c 2008 
300 |a 34 p. 
653 |a Health services 
653 |a Workers 
653 |a Health, Nutrition and Population 
653 |a Patients 
653 |a Health outcomes 
653 |a Health care 
653 |a Health Systems Development and Reform 
653 |a Families 
653 |a Health Policy 
653 |a Chemotherapy 
653 |a Community health 
653 |a Health Monitoring and Evaluation 
653 |a Medicines 
700 1 |a Wagstaff, Adam 
041 0 7 |a eng  |2 ISO 639-2 
989 |b WOBA  |a World Bank E-Library Archive 
856 4 0 |u http://elibrary.worldbank.org/content/workingpaper/10.1596/1813-9450-4554  |x Verlag  |3 Volltext 
082 0 |a 330 
520 |a Health systems are not just about improving health: good ones also ensure that people are protected from the financial consequences of receiving medical care. Anecdotal evidence suggests health systems often perform badly in this respect, apparently with devastating consequences for households, especially poor ones and near-poor ones. Two principal methods have been used to measure financial protection in health. Both relate a household's out-of-pocket spending to a threshold defined in terms of living standards in the absence of the spending: the first defines spending as catastrophic if it exceeds a certain percentage of the living standards measure; the second defines spending as impoverishing if it makes the difference between a household being above and below the poverty line. The paper provides an overview of the methods and issues arising in each case, and presents empirical work in the area of financial protection in health, including the impacts of government policy. The paper also reviews a recent critique of the methods used to measure financial protection