Listing 1 - 4 of 4 |
Sort by
|
Choose an application
Vietnam's Health Care Fund for the Poor (HCFP) uses government revenues to finance health care for the poor, ethnic minorities living in selected mountainous provinces designated as difficult, and all households living in communes officially designated as highly disadvantaged. The program, which started in 2003, did not as of 2004 include all these groups, but those who were included (about 15 percent of the population) were disproportionately poor. Estimates of the program's impact-obtained using single differences and propensity score matching on a trimmed sample-suggest that HCFP has substantially increased service utilization, especially in-patient care, and has reduced the risk of catastrophic spending. It has not, however, reduced average out-of-pocket spending, and appears to have had negligible impacts on utilization among the poorest decile.
Child Development --- Clinics --- Evaluation --- Health --- Health Care --- Health Care Finance --- Health Insurance --- Health Monitoring and Evaluation --- Health Services --- Health Systems Development and Reform --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Hospitals --- Implementation --- Inpatient Care --- Measurement --- Medicines --- Outpatient Care --- Patients --- Population --- Research Program --- Social Services --- Weight --- Workers
Choose an application
It is generally accepted that government health expenditures should disproportionately benefit the poor. And yet in most developing countries the opposite is the case. This paper examines the implications of a central assumption of benefit incidence analysis, namely that the unit cost of a government-provided service bears no relation to the out-of-pocket payments paid by the patient. It argues that a more plausible assumption is that larger out-of-pocket payments for a given unit of utilization reflect more (or more costly) services being delivered. The paper compares - theoretically and empirically - the standard constant-cost assumption with two alternatives, namely that the cost of care in a specific episode of utilization is (a) proportional to or (b) linearly related to the amount of money paid out-of-pocket by the patient. An interesting special case of the linear relationship is where subsidies are focused on a basic unit of care and additional costs are met dollar-for-dollar by additional fees. The paper shows that if fees are more pro-rich than utilization, government spending will be least pro-rich under the constant-cost assumption and most pro-rich under the proportionality assumption. The linear assumption results in a concentration index for subsidies that lies between these two extremes. These results are borne out in an analysis of the incidence of government health spending in Vietnam (a country where fees are more pro-rich than utilization); indeed, under the constant-cost assumption, subsidies are pro-poor while they are pro-rich under the proportionality assumption. The paper also considers the biases created by not allowing for insurance reimbursements.
Clinics --- Economic Theory & Research --- Health --- Health expenditures --- Health Monitoring & Evaluation --- Health services --- Health systems --- Health Systems Development & Reform --- Hospitals --- Human development --- Incidence analysis --- Income --- Inpatient care --- Insurance --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Medicines --- Nutrition and Population --- Outpatient care --- Patient --- Patients --- Primary health care --- Public health --- Public Sector Development --- Public Sector Management and Reform --- School health --- School health care --- Social services --- Urban Development --- Urban Economics --- Workers
Choose an application
Vietnam's Health Care Fund for the Poor (HCFP) uses government revenues to finance health care for the poor, ethnic minorities living in selected mountainous provinces designated as difficult, and all households living in communes officially designated as highly disadvantaged. The program, which started in 2003, did not as of 2004 include all these groups, but those who were included (about 15 percent of the population) were disproportionately poor. Estimates of the program's impact-obtained using single differences and propensity score matching on a trimmed sample-suggest that HCFP has substantially increased service utilization, especially in-patient care, and has reduced the risk of catastrophic spending. It has not, however, reduced average out-of-pocket spending, and appears to have had negligible impacts on utilization among the poorest decile.
Child Development --- Clinics --- Evaluation --- Health --- Health Care --- Health Care Finance --- Health Insurance --- Health Monitoring and Evaluation --- Health Services --- Health Systems Development and Reform --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Hospitals --- Implementation --- Inpatient Care --- Measurement --- Medicines --- Outpatient Care --- Patients --- Population --- Research Program --- Social Services --- Weight --- Workers
Choose an application
It is generally accepted that government health expenditures should disproportionately benefit the poor. And yet in most developing countries the opposite is the case. This paper examines the implications of a central assumption of benefit incidence analysis, namely that the unit cost of a government-provided service bears no relation to the out-of-pocket payments paid by the patient. It argues that a more plausible assumption is that larger out-of-pocket payments for a given unit of utilization reflect more (or more costly) services being delivered. The paper compares - theoretically and empirically - the standard constant-cost assumption with two alternatives, namely that the cost of care in a specific episode of utilization is (a) proportional to or (b) linearly related to the amount of money paid out-of-pocket by the patient. An interesting special case of the linear relationship is where subsidies are focused on a basic unit of care and additional costs are met dollar-for-dollar by additional fees. The paper shows that if fees are more pro-rich than utilization, government spending will be least pro-rich under the constant-cost assumption and most pro-rich under the proportionality assumption. The linear assumption results in a concentration index for subsidies that lies between these two extremes. These results are borne out in an analysis of the incidence of government health spending in Vietnam (a country where fees are more pro-rich than utilization); indeed, under the constant-cost assumption, subsidies are pro-poor while they are pro-rich under the proportionality assumption. The paper also considers the biases created by not allowing for insurance reimbursements.
Clinics --- Economic Theory & Research --- Health --- Health expenditures --- Health Monitoring & Evaluation --- Health services --- Health systems --- Health Systems Development & Reform --- Hospitals --- Human development --- Incidence analysis --- Income --- Inpatient care --- Insurance --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Medicines --- Nutrition and Population --- Outpatient care --- Patient --- Patients --- Primary health care --- Public health --- Public Sector Development --- Public Sector Management and Reform --- School health --- School health care --- Social services --- Urban Development --- Urban Economics --- Workers
Listing 1 - 4 of 4 |
Sort by
|