The Study of Catastrophic Health Expenditure and Impoverishment of Households based on Life-cycle Theory using Pseudo-Panel Approach

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the percentage of households facing catastrophic health expenditure and the impoverishment index before and after the implementation of the Health System Reform Plan (HSRP) in rural and urban areas of Iran. This research is based on statistical inference, life-cycle theory and pseudo-panel approach, which uses household income-expenditure survey data during 2014-2017. Using the STATA-SE13 and Excel softwares, households were categorized in 10 age groups of households’ heads born between 1944 and 1993 within five-year intervals. The indexes were calculated in weighted and non-weighted cases for total households, and households having health expenditure. After the implementation of HSRP, the percentage of households with catastrophic health expenditure remained relatively unchanged and impoverishment index decreased slightly. In 2015, both rural and urban households having health expenditure in non-weighted case were faced to the least catastrophic expenditure and the least impoverishment index. Totally, rural and urban areas with elderly household-heads experienced the highest catastrophic health expenditure and impoverishment rate.

Keywords

• health system reform plan
• catastrophic health expenditure
• impoverishment
• pseudo-panel
• life-cycle