Browsing by Author "Geofrey, Massito John"

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    Out of pocket health care payment, catastrophic expenditure and household poverty in Tanzania: empirical evidence from tanzania panel data survey
    (University of Dar es Salaam, 2018) Geofrey, Massito John
    This study investigates the catastrophic impacts of out of pocket expenditure and their implication on poverty in Tanzania. Specifically, the study estimates the levels and intensity of catastrophic health expenditure and assesses the impacts of out-of- pocket spending on the welfare of households. In addition, the study examines the determinants of catastrophic expenditure using panel data methods on the logit model, ensuring that estimation problems such as endogeneity, heteroscedasticity, and multicollinearity are addressed. The results indicate that 17.5 percent of the respondents reported visiting a health care facility within four weeks prior to the survey, and more than 50 percent reported incidence of illness or injury. The results also show that among those who utilized health care, about 6.7 percent experienced catastrophic health expenditure and 3.1 percent (which approximates to 1.39 million people) were found to have been impoverished or made poorer by incurring these payments. Furthermore, the study found that out of pocket health care expenditures are significantly and positively associated with catastrophic expenditure as well as household poverty. These findings concur with the contention in the literature that OOP health expenditures tend to lead to financial catastrophe for poor households, thereby exposing them to more poverty and forcing them to resort to coping mechanisms that compromise their welfare. In view of these results, there is a need to explore new and strength existing mechanisms for shielding poor households against out-of-pocket and catastrophic health expenditures.