Health Affairs, 26, no. 4 (2007): 972-983 doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.26.4.972 © 2007 by Project HOPE	New Online   Pay Cuts For Medicare Docs   Access To Care Woes   Public Coverage More Efficient   Empowering Consumers

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Out-Of-Pocket Spending

Protecting Households From Catastrophic Health Spending

Many countries rely heavily on patients’ out-of-pocket payments to providers to finance their health care systems. This prevents some people from seeking care and results in financial catastrophe and impoverishment for others who do obtain care. Surveys in eighty-nine countries covering 89 percent of the world’s population suggest that 150 million people globally suffer financial catastrophe annually because they pay for health services. Prepayment mechanisms protect people from financial catastrophe, but there is no strong evidence that social health insurance systems offer better or worse protection than tax-based systems do.

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