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Impact of the policy of expanding benefit coverage for cancer patients on catastrophic health expenditure across different income groups in South Korea

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  • Kim, Sujin
  • Kwon, Soonman

Abstract

To increase financial protection for catastrophic illness, South Korean government expanded the National Health Insurance (NHI) benefit coverage for cancer patients in September 2005. This paper investigated whether the policy has reduced inequality in catastrophic payments, defined as annual out-of-pocket (OOP) health payments exceeding 10% annual income, across different income groups. This study used the NHI claims data from 2002 to 2004 and 2006 to 2010. Triple difference estimator was employed to compare cancer patients as a treatment group with those with liver and cardio-cerebrovascular diseases as control groups and the low-income with the high-income groups. While catastrophic payments decreased in cancer patients compared with those of two diseases, they appeared to decrease more in the high-income than the low-income group. Considering that increased health care utilization and poor economic capacity may lead to a smaller reduction in catastrophic payments for the low-income than the high-income patients, the government needs to consider additional policy measures to increase financial protection for the poor.

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  • Kim, Sujin & Kwon, Soonman, 2015. "Impact of the policy of expanding benefit coverage for cancer patients on catastrophic health expenditure across different income groups in South Korea," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 241-247.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:138:y:2015:i:c:p:241-247
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.06.012
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    3. Kim, Sujin & Kwon, Soonman, 2023. "Has South Korea achieved the goals of national health insurance? Trends in financial protection of households between 2011 and 2018," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 326(C).
    4. Han, Kyu-Tae & Kim, Jeeyun & Nam, Chung Mo & Moon, Ki Tae & Lee, Sang Gyu & Kim, Seung Ju & Ju, Yeong Jun & Kwon, Jeoung A & Kim, Sun Jung & Kim, Woorim & Park, Eun-Cheol, 2016. "Association between reduction in copayment and gastric cancer patient concentration to the capital area in South Korea: NHI cohort 2003–2013," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(6), pages 580-589.
    5. Jinha An & Sukil Kim, 2020. "Medical cost trends under national health insurance benefit extension in Republic of Korea," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(6), pages 1351-1370, November.
    6. Yue Zhou & Haishaerjiang Wushouer & Daniel Vuillermin & Xiaodong Guan & Luwen Shi, 2021. "Does the universal medical insurance system reduce catastrophic health expenditure among middle-aged and elderly households in China? A longitudinal analysis," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 22(3), pages 463-471, April.
    7. Maria-Carmen García-Centeno & Román Mínguez-Salido & Raúl del Pozo-Rubio, 2021. "The Classification of Profiles of Financial Catastrophe Caused by Out-of-Pocket Payments: A Methodological Approach," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-20, May.
    8. Sha Chen & Zhiye Lin & Xiaoru Fan & Jushuang Li & Yao-Jie Xie & Chun Hao, 2022. "The Comparison of Various Types of Health Insurance in the Healthcare Utilization, Costs and Catastrophic Health Expenditures among Middle-Aged and Older Chinese Adults," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-14, May.
    9. Jianqiang Xu & Juan Zheng & Lingzhong Xu & Hongtao Wu, 2021. "Equity of Health Services Utilisation and Expenditure among Urban and Rural Residents under Universal Health Coverage," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-15, January.

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