Out-of-Pocket Health Expenditure among Households with NCD Patients and Its Relationship with Health Insurance Status: Findings from A Study in Urban in Hanoi, 2012

Thuy Thanh Nguyen, Touchanun Komonpaisarn, Kien Duy Vu

Abstract


Introductions: The main purpose of this study is to examine an impact of non-communicable diseases and health insurance on out-of-pocket payment of individuals living in two urban districts of Hanoi. Methods: A cross-sectional survey of 614 households and 2409 individuals was conducted in Hanoi, Vietnam 2012. Descriptive statistics and Quantile regressions were used. Results: The main result shows that people with different ethnicity background and educational level have a different trend to spend on health expenditure. People with non-communicable diseases had significantly higher out-of-pocket payment than those do not have any non-communicable disease. Moreover, compulsory health insurance can help to reduce individuals’ out-of-pocket spending. Conclusion: Findings from this study indicate that the Government needs to invest in providing information about health insurance, benefit packet of health insurance and about financial protection advantage of health insurance and more attentions should be paid on prevention to reduce morbidity by NCDs leads reduce out-of-pocket health expenditure.

Keywords


Hanoi; health insurance; non-communicable diseases; out-of-pocket health expenditure; urban

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