IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/hepoli/v127y2023icp44-50.html

Progressivity of out-of-pocket costs under Australia's universal health care system: A national linked data study

Author

Listed:
  • Law, Hsei Di
  • Marasinghe, Dinith
  • Butler, Danielle
  • Welsh, Jennifer
  • Lancsar, Emily
  • Banks, Emily
  • Biddle, Nicholas
  • Korda, Rosemary

Abstract

In line with affordability and equity principles, Medicare—Australia's universal health care program—has measures to contain out-of-pocket (OOP) costs, particularly for lower income households. This study examined the distribution of OOP costs for Medicare-subsidised out-of-hospital services and prescription medicines in Australian households, according to their ability to pay.

Suggested Citation

  • Law, Hsei Di & Marasinghe, Dinith & Butler, Danielle & Welsh, Jennifer & Lancsar, Emily & Banks, Emily & Biddle, Nicholas & Korda, Rosemary, 2023. "Progressivity of out-of-pocket costs under Australia's universal health care system: A national linked data study," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 44-50.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:127:y:2023:i:c:p:44-50
    DOI: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2022.10.010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168851022002792
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.healthpol.2022.10.010?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mohammad Hajizadeh & Luke Brian Connelly & James Robert Gerard Butler, 2014. "Health Policy and Equity of Health Care Financing in Australia: 1973–2010," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(2), pages 298-322, June.
    2. Neelsen, Sven & Limwattananon, Supon & O'Donnell, Owen & van Doorslaer, Eddy, 2019. "Universal health coverage: A (social insurance) job half done?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 246-258.
    3. Kakwani, Nanok C, 1977. "Measurement of Tax Progressivity: An International Comparison," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 87(345), pages 71-80, March.
    4. Rachel J. Knott & Philip M. Clarke & Emma L. Heeley & John P. Chalmers, 2015. "Measuring the Progressivity of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 48(2), pages 122-132, June.
    5. Bhat, Chandra R., 1994. "Imputing a continuous income variable from grouped and missing income observations," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 311-319, December.
    6. Lairson, David R. & Hindson, Paul & Hauquitz, Alan, 1995. "Equity of health care in Australia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 475-482, August.
    7. Hua, Xinyang & Erreygers, Guido & Chalmers, John & Laba, Tracey-Lea & Clarke, Philip, 2017. "Using administrative data to look at changes in the level and distribution of out-of-pocket medical expenditure: An example using Medicare data from Australia," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(4), pages 426-433.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Desborough, Jane & Maskell-Knight, Charles & Wang, Shelley & Parkinson, Anne & Butler, Danielle & Law, Hsei-Di & Butler, Kamania & Watts, Leanne & Huynh, Elisabeth & Hodson, Fiona & Ibrahim, Samar & V, 2025. "Lived experience of out-of-pocket costs of health care and medicines by people with chronic conditions and their families in Australia: a systematic review of the qualitative literature," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    2. Luyten, Emilia & Tubeuf, Sandy, 2025. "Equity in healthcare financing: A review of evidence," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hua, Xinyang & Erreygers, Guido & Chalmers, John & Laba, Tracey-Lea & Clarke, Philip, 2017. "Using administrative data to look at changes in the level and distribution of out-of-pocket medical expenditure: An example using Medicare data from Australia," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(4), pages 426-433.
    2. Pulok, Mohammad Habibullah & van Gool, Kees & Hall, Jane, 2020. "Horizontal inequity in the utilisation of healthcare services in Australia," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(11), pages 1263-1271.
    3. Luca Crivelli & Paola Salari, 2012. "Fiscal federalism and income redistribution through healthcare financing: An empirical analysis for the Swiss cantons," CEPRA working paper 1204, USI Università della Svizzera italiana.
    4. Adam Wagstaff, 2002. "Reflections on and alternatives to WHO's fairness of financial contribution index," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(2), pages 103-115, March.
    5. Sterling Edmonds & Mohammad Hajizadeh, 2019. "Assessing progressivity and catastrophic effect of out-of-pocket payments for healthcare in Canada: 2010–2015," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 20(7), pages 1001-1011, September.
    6. Dhingra, Aarushi & Gannon, Brenda & Connelly, Luke & Mishra, Gita, 2025. "Equity in use and financing of assisted reproductive technologies: Does income matter?," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    7. Moradi, Alireza, 2011. "Equity of Health Care Financing: An Application to Iran," MPRA Paper 33489, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Duclos, Jean-Yves, 1998. "Social evaluation functions, economic isolation and the Suits index of progressivity," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 103-121, July.
    9. Luis A. Hierro & Rosario Gómez‐Álvarez & Pedro Atienza, 2014. "A Consistent Decomposition Of The Redistributive, Vertical, And Horizontal Effects Of Health Care Finance By Factor Components," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(1), pages 117-121, January.
    10. Duclos, J.Y., 1995. "Economic Isolation, Inequality, and the Suits Index of Progressivity," Papers 9510, Laval - Recherche en Politique Economique.
    11. Yoonchae Yoon & Jina Park, 2022. "Equitable City in an Aging Society: Public Transportation-Based Primary Care Accessibility in Seoul, Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-17, August.
    12. García-Miralles, Esteban & Freier, Maximilian & Riscado, Sara & Brusbārde, Baiba & Cochard, Marion & Cornille, David & Dicarlo, Emanuele & Delgado-Téllez, Mar & Fadejeva, Ludmila & Flevotomou, Maria &, 2025. "Fiscal drag in theory and in practice: a European perspective," Working Paper Series 3136, European Central Bank.
    13. van Doorslaer, Eddy & Wagstaff, Adam & van der Burg, Hattem & Christiansen, Terkel & Citoni, Guido & Di Biase, Rita & Gerdtham, Ulf-G. & Gerfin, Mike & Gross, Lorna & Hakinnen, Unto, 1999. "The redistributive effect of health care finance in twelve OECD countries," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 291-313, June.
    14. Sologon, Denisa M. & O'Donoghue, Cathal & Linden, Jules & Kyzyma, Iryna & Loughrey, Jason, 2022. "Welfare and Distributional Impact of Soaring Prices in Europe," IZA Discussion Papers 15738, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. B. Essama‐Nssah & Peter J. Lambert, 2009. "Measuring Pro‐Poorness: A Unifying Approach With New Results," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 55(3), pages 752-778, September.
    16. Matsaganis Manos & Flevotomou Maria, 2008. "A Basic Income for Housing? Simulating a Universal Housing Transfer in the Netherlands and Sweden," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 2(2), pages 1-25, January.
    17. Kelly B. Maguire & Glenn Sheriff, 2011. "Quantifying the Distribution of Environmental Outcomes for Regulatory Environmental Justice Analysis," NCEE Working Paper Series 201102, National Center for Environmental Economics, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, revised Apr 2011.
    18. Chung Tran & Nabeeh Zakariyya, 2019. "Tax Progressivity in Australia: Facts, Measurements and Estimates," ANU Working Papers in Economics and Econometrics 2019-667, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics.
    19. Onrubia Fernández, Jorge & Picos, Fidel & Rodado, María del Carmen, 2019. "Shifting tax burden to top income earners: What is the best way to reduce inequality?," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 13, pages 1-31.
    20. O'Donnell, Owen, 2024. "Health and health system effects on poverty: A narrative review of global evidence," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:127:y:2023:i:c:p:44-50. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu or the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/healthpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.