title: Financial risks from ill health in Myanmar: evidence and policy implications.
abstract: The government of Myanmar, with support from international donors, plans to address household financial risks from ill health and expand coverage. But evidence to design policy is limited. WHS (World Health Survey) data for 6045 households were used to investigate the association of out-of-pocket (OOP) health spending, catastrophic expenditures, and household borrowing and asset sales associated with illness with key socioeconomic and demographic correlates in Myanmar. Households with elderly and young children and chronically ill individuals, poor households, and ethnic minorities face higher financial stress from illness. Rural households use less care, suggesting their lower OOP health spending may be at the cost of health. Poorer groups rely more on public sector health services than richer groups. Better targeting, increased budgetary allocations, and more effective use of resources via designing cost-effective benefits packages appear key to sustainably addressing financial risks from ill health in Myanmar.
authors.affiliation: Monash University, Melbourne, Australia Ministry of Health, Government of Myanmar, Myanmar.
authors.forename: Soe
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Htet
authors.affiliation: Center for Global Development, Washington, DC, USA University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA.
authors.forename: Victoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: Monash University, Melbourne, Australia Equity and Health Systems, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
authors.forename: Khurshid
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Alam
authors.affiliation: Monash University, Melbourne, Australia ajay.mahal@monash.edu.
authors.forename: Ajay
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mahal
mesh_terms: D002388:Catastrophic Illness / Q000191:economics*; D017281:Cost of Illness; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005382:Financing, Personal / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006291:Health Policy; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D002052:Myanmar; D012306:Risk; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
keywords: Myanmar; equity; financial risk protection; health financing; health systems