Catastrophic health expenditure ; Trend ; Income ; Health expenditures
Abstract
Catastrophic health expenditure refers to measure the level of the economic burden of households due to medical expenses. Thepurpose of this study was to examine the proportion of households that experienced catastrophic health expenditure between 2006and 2019 using available data from the National Survey of Tax and Benefit (NaSTaB), Korea Health Panel (KHP), and HouseholdsIncome and Expenditure Survey (HIES). Trend test was used to analyze the proportion of households with catastrophic healthcareexpenditure. The households experienced a catastrophic health expenditure of 2.44% in 2019 using the NaSTaB data. Trend analysiswas significant with the decreasing trend (annual percentage change [APC], -4.49; p<0.0001) in the proportion of households withcatastrophic health expenditure. Also, the results of the 2017 KHP and the 2016 HIES showed 2.20% and 2.92%. The trend wassignificantly increased in the KHP (APC, 1.79; p<0.0001) and the HIES (APC, 1.43; p<0.0001). Therefore, this study suggests thatfurther public healthcare interventions to alleviate the burden of catastrophic health expenditure, especially for low-incomehouseholds, are needed.