Dealing with the cost of illness: The experience of four villages in Lao PDR

This paper analyses household coping strategies for illness in four Lao villages. The villagers dealt with health expenditure themselves, using coping mechanisms which drew mainly on social networks within the community. They strongly believed in the principle of paying user fees and did not conside...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of international development 2009-03, Vol.21 (2), p.212-230
Main Authors: Patcharanarumol, Walaiporn, Mills, Anne, Tangcharoensathien, Viroj
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
catastrophic health expenditure
coping mechanisms
Cost
cost management
Costs
Empirical research
Exemptions
Expenditures
financial cost of illness
Health care expenditures
Health care policy
Health expenditure
Health policy
Households
Illness
Lao PDR
Laos
Low income groups
Rural health care
Rural population
Social networks
Socialist states
Studies
Survival strategy
User fees
Villages
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Summary:This paper analyses household coping strategies for illness in four Lao villages. The villagers dealt with health expenditure themselves, using coping mechanisms which drew mainly on social networks within the community. They strongly believed in the principle of paying user fees and did not consider exemption from fees an option. A total of 12 households (6 per cent of households) faced catastrophic expenditure arising from healthcare payments. The national policy on exemptions did not protect the poor and the study demonstrates that there is an urgent need for the government to improve the design and implementation of exemptions or reform the policy on subsidising health care. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
ISSN:0954-1748
1099-1328
DOI:10.1002/jid.1549