Examining the Economic Burden of Out-of-Pocket Health Expenditures for Households in Different Socio-Economic Groups in Turkey

Abstract

In this study, the varying nature of catastrophic threshold for out-of-pocket health expenditures of Turkish households has been investigated by the help of Household Budget Surveys compiled by TurkStat (2002-2016). Two methods have been used in the calculation of catastrophic health expenditures: (i) The fixed (same) catastrophic thresholds and (ii) variable thresholds based on different socio-economic groups (quintile) have been calculated and compared. Also, catastrophic health expenditures risk factors have been analysed by using binary logistic regression models. Unlike previous studies, poor households have been found more likely to experience catastrophic health expenditure in Turkey. Thus, the result indicates that analyses using the same threshold level for all socio-economic groups of a society might lead policymakers to misleading conclusions.