Impact of supplementary private health insurance on stomach cancer care in Korea: a cross-sectional study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Korea achieved universal health insurance coverage in only 12 years; however, insufficient government funding has resulted in high out-of-pocket payments and, in turn, a demand for supplementary private health insurance (PHI). Supplementary PHI provides a fixed amount of benefits in the event of critical illness (e.g., cancer or stroke), surgery, or hospitalization. In this study, we tried to identify factors that influence the decision to purchase supplementary PHI and investigate the impacts of PHI on various aspects of cancer care.

Methods

In a cross-sectional study of 391 patients with gastric cancer, we collected data on demographic and clinical variables, coverage by PHI at the time of diagnosis, and patients' cancer care experiences from surgery databases a

SUBMITTER: Shin DW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2726135 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature