Monitoring progress towards universal health coverage in Europe: a descriptive analysis of financial protection in 40 countries.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Ensuring that access to health care is affordable for everyone-financial protection-is central to universal health coverage (UHC). Financial protection is commonly measured using indicators of financial barriers to access (unmet need for health care) and financial hardship caused by out-of-pocket payments for health care (impoverishing and catastrophic health spending). We aim to assess financial hardship and unmet need in Europe and identify the coverage policy choices that undermine financial protection.

Methods

We carry out a cross-sectional study of financial hardship in 40 countries in Europe in 2019 (the latest available year of data before COVID-19) using microdata from national household budget surveys. We define impoverishing health spending as out-of-poc

SUBMITTER: Thomson S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10866929 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature