NDLI: Inequality in healthcare costs between residing and non-residing patients: evidence from Vietnam

Content Provider	Springer Nature : BioMed Central
Author	Nguyen, Hieu M.
Abstract	Background Place of residence has been shown to impact health. To date, however, previous studies have only focused on the variability in health outcomes and healthcare costs between urban and rural patients. This study takes a different approach and investigates cost inequality facing non-residing patients – patients who do not reside in the regions in which the hospitals are located. Understanding the sources for this inequality is important, as they are directly related to healthcare accessibility in developing countries. Methods The causal impact of residency status on individual healthcare spending is documented with a quasi-experimental design. The propensity score matching method is applied to a unique patient-level dataset (n = 900) collected at public general and specialist hospitals across North Vietnam. Results Propensity score matching shows that Vietnamese patients who do not reside in the regions in which the hospitals are located are expected to pay about 15 million Vietnamese dongs (approximately 750 USD) more than those who do, a sizable gap, given the distribution of total healthcare costs for the overall sample. This estimate is robust to alternative matching specifications. The obtained discrepancy is empirically attributable to the differences in three potential contributors, namely spending on accompanying relatives, “courtesy funds,” and days of hospitalization. Conclusions The present study finds that there is significant inequality in healthcare spending between residing and non-residing patients at Vietnamese hospitals and that this discrepancy can be partially explained by both institutional and non-institutional factors. These factors signal practical channels through which policymakers can improve healthcare accessibility.
Related Links	https://equityhealthj.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12939-017-0581-3.pdf
Ending Page	9
Page Count	9
Starting Page	1
File Format	HTM / HTML
ISSN	14759276
DOI	10.1186/s12939-017-0581-3
Journal	International Journal for Equity in Health
Issue Number	1
Volume Number	16
Language	English
Publisher	BioMed Central
Publisher Date	2017-05-12
Access Restriction	Open
Subject Keyword	Public Health Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Health Services Research Health Policy Social Justice Equality and Human Rights Social Policy Residency status Healthcare costs Bribery Vietnam
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Health Policy Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Journal Impact Factor	4.5/2023
5-Year Journal Impact Factor	4.7/2023

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