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ABSTRACT
Health care remains inaccessible and inequitable for all, especially for the poor in the Philippines. Among the sources of health expenditures, out-of-pocket expenses remain to be Filipinos' major source of financing for medical care. However, it is this reliance on out-of-pocket expenditures that pushes Filipino households into poverty. This paper thus presents the current state of out-of-pocket expenditures in the Philippines by analyzing and estimating the burden of health payments, catastrophic payments, and impoverishments based on the Family and Income Expenditure Surveys from 2000 to 2012. This study reveals that out-of-pocket expenditures for health-care financing continue to increase. Among the components of total health expenditures, drugs or medicines account for the highest share among the poorest and richest quintiles. The burden of health payments has a positive relationship relative to one's socioeconomic status-more so among those in the richer quintiles because of their greater demand on health care. This study also reveals the higher share of out-of-pocket payments on households' nonfood expenditures. An increasing trend of catastrophic payments has been observed until recently where there was a 1.01-percent increase from 2000 to 2012. This is also the same for impoverishments: There is a rise in the prevalence of impoverished households due to high out-of-pocket expenditures. Furthermore, the poverty gap also increases after out-of-pocket payments.
BACKGROUND
In 2014, the Philippines posted a 6.11 percent gross domestic product (GDP) which was right on target and continued to be satisfactory since 2010. Despite the series of natural disasters and calamities, the GDP in the fourth quarter of 2014 grew by 6.99 percent (Official Gazette 2014). For the coming years, there is a positive outlook for the economy in general amid the challenges in the global environment and the impact of recent disasters. Economic growth is projected to be at 9 percent in 2015 (Chua 2014).
Despite the rosy picture on the domestic economy, income and social inequalities still persist. Basic social provisions remain generally inaccessible to vulnerable segments of the population. One such provision is health care. Although social safety nets are in place to facilitate access, out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditures remain to be Filipinos' major source of financing when health care is most needed. In 2011, more than 50 percent of total health payment came...