TY - JOUR
TI - The financial burden of out-of-pocket patient payments in the European Union and accession countries: 

	Results of a systematic literature review
AU - Moser, Konstantin
AU - Pavlova, Milena
AU - Groot, Wim
TI - The financial burden of out-of-pocket patient payments in the European Union and accession countries: 

	Results of a systematic literature review
AB - 
	A major issue for public health policy is to reduce the poverty and catastrophic effects of out-of-pocket payments. This paper reviews empirical studies that analyze the financial burden of out-of-pocket payments and factors that are associated with this burden for households in the EU and accession countries. The method of systematic literature review is applied. Poverty effects appear to be independent of geographical area. Catastrophic healthcare expenditure ranges from a bit less than 0.05% to nearly 4%, and the impoverishment due to out-of-pocket payments is also up to 4%. Analyses carried out in single countries reveal that living in a household with a pensioner contributes most to high payments for health care. The results support calls for health policy to prevent the burden of out-of-pocket payments, especially for pharmaceutical expenditure. Special attention should be paid to risk groups such as pensioners, female headed households and low income households.
VL - 2014
IS - Tom 12 Numer 3
PY - 2015
SN - 1731-7398
C1 - 2084-2627
SP - 239
EP - 247
DO - 10.4467/20842627OZ.14.025.3443
UR - https://ejournals.eu/czasopismo/zdrowie-publiczne-i-zarzadzanie/artykul/the-financial-burden-of-out-of-pocket-patient-payments-in-the-european-union-and-accession-countries-results-of-a-systematic-literature-review
KW - catastrophic effects
KW - European Union
KW - out-of-pocket payments
KW - poverty