Abbreviated Name:
Out-of-pocket payment for health (% of current expenditure on health)
Indicator Name:
Out-of-pocket payment on health as a percentage of current expenditure on health
Domain:
Health System Response/ Health financing
Related Terms:
Out-of-pocket expenditure, total health expenditure (THE)
Definition:
Share of total current expenditure on health paid by household out of pocket, expressed as a percentage of total health expenditure (this is the households’ out of pocket expenses)
Measurment Method:
National Health Accounts are developed based on expenditure information collected within an internationally recognized framework. National Health Accounts aims to track records of transactions, in order to cover all health expenditures without double counting, notably by consolidating intergovernmental transfers. Monetary and non-monetary transactions are accounted for at purchasers’ value. A new guide for producing National Health Accounts was published in 2011 – the System of Health Accounts 2011. It is aimed to replace previously existing guidelines; notably, the System of Health Accounts 1.0 (OECD, 2000) and the NHA Producer Guide (WHO-World Bank-USAID, 2003).
Numerator:
Out-of-pocket payment on health
Denominator
Total current expenditure on health.
Estimation method:
The most comprehensive and consistent data on health financing is generated from National Health Accounts. Not all countries have produced their National Health Accounts or regularly update them. In these instances, data is obtained through technical contacts in-country or from publicly-available documents and reports and harmonized to the NHA framework. Missing values are estimated using various accounting techniques depending on the data available for each country. WHO has been collecting and estimating National Health Accounts related indicators for more than fifteen years and has made them available at the Global Health Expenditure Database. The principal international references used for the estimation are the EUROSTAT database, International Monetary Fund (IMF), government financial statistics and international financial statistics, OECD health data, and the United Nations national accounts statistics. As regard national sources, these include: National Health Accounts (NHA) reports, National Accounts (NA) reports, general government (GG) accounts, public expenditure reviews (PER), government expenditure by purpose reports (COFOG), institutional reports of public entities involved in health care provision or financing, notably social security and other health insurance compulsory agencies and Ministry of Finance (MoF) reports.
Disaggregation:
WHO sends estimates to the respective Ministries of Health every year for validation.
Primary data sources:
National Health Accounts
Alternate data sources:
Administrative reporting system, household surveys, special studies and ad hoc surveys
Measurment frequency:
Annual