Abbreviated Name:
Population with catastrophic health expenditure
Indicator Name:
Population with catastrophic health expenditure
Domain:
Health System Response/ Health financing
Related Terms:
Out-of-pocket health payments; household capacity to pay;
Definition:
A health care payment is considered to be catastrophic (cata) if a household’s total out-of-pocket health payments equal or exceed 40% of household’s capacity to pay (or household’s non-subsistence spending).
Measurment Method:
Primary data analysis: 1. Calculate out-of-pocket health expenditure (oop) as payments made by households at the point they receive health services. 2. Estimate the household capacity to pay (ctp) as household non-subsistence spending. 3. Calculate the share of out-of-pocket health payments as percentage of household capacity to pay. 4. In this regard, catastrophic heath expenditure occurs when a household’s total out-of-pocket health payments equal or exceed 40% of household’s capacity to pay.
Numerator:
NA
Denominator
NA
Estimation method:
-
Disaggregation:
Subnational variables available in survey data. Information on household location (urban vs rural); the gender, age and education of the head of the household; household composition (for example, the number of children under five years of age, people aged 60 or more years, the number of females); and other socio-economic variables are useful for equity analysis.
Primary data sources:
National Health Accounts
Alternate data sources:
Administrative reporting system, Household surveys, Special studies and ad hoc surveys
Measurment frequency:
Annually if the Household Budget (Expenditure) Survey is institutionalized and every 5 years otherwise