Evaluation of the financial burden of population to obtain medical services in the package of state guarantees in Tajikistan

S.R. Miraliyev

Department of Health Policy Analysis Unit of the Ministry of Health and Social Protection of the Republic of Tajikistan; Avicenna Tajik State Medical University

The evaluation of the level of financial burden for inpatient and outpatient medical services in the pilot areas is conducted. Results of 4 Rounds studies have shown that with the introduction of a package of state guarantees (PSG) as a whole, the proportion of patients making payments decreased in the pilot areas compared with control areas more than doubled; but the average size of payments made by them has increased by more than 2-fold during the same period.

Despite the positive trend, the introduction of PSG is still not reduced the financial burden on patients at the hospital level in absolute terms, it only reduced the proportion of patients who pay for this or that part ofcost for own health care. This is due to the fact that the co-payments replaced only part, but not the entire amount of unofficial payments. Moreover, it is noted that the PSG helped reduce the overall financial burden of privileged categories of patients, compared to non-preferential. The proportion of patients who make general payments pilot at PSG areas decreased from 81% to 30% (in 2007 and 2012, respectively); average size of payments made by them is also reduced by more than 3 times during the same period.

Keywords: package of state guarantees, preferential categories of the population, co-payments.

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