A country-wide comparison of cost recovery and financing systems of blood and blood products

Abstract

Background: As blood is a scarce and expensive resource, irrational blood usage places huge burden on health expenditures. In response to this challenge, governments and health care providers are developing different strategies to optimize blood utilization. Among these strategies is trying to raise the public awareness on the actual costs of the blood production and changing the cost recovery systems of blood and blood components. Aims: This study aims to compare cost recovery and financing systems of blood and blood products in different countries. Methods: This research was an email-based survey of 30 countries from four HDI categories. All related literature was reviewed. Results: Out of 28 countries, 19 have blood and blood products that are provided totally free of charge to the patients. In nine countries blood and blood products are totally or partially chargeable to the patients. Conclusions: In countries with low and lower-middle income economies, total or partial costs of blood and blood products are recovered directly from the patients. While countries in which blood and blood products are ‘free of charge’ for patients are mostly categorized in upper-middle-or high-income economies with well-developed healthcare and insurance systems. There is no clear relation between blood usage and the type of cost recovery system. However, having an efficient cost recovery system will help blood establishments to sustain their service delivery.