The Trend in Household Catastrophic Medical Expenditure according to Healthcare Coverage Types and Its Associated Factors

Abstract This study aims to examine the trend in household catastrophic medical expenditure according to the healthcare coverage types and its associated factors based on the raw data of the Korean Health Panel over the years2008 to 2011. Correspondence analysis was used to investigate the trend in the incidence rates of annual catastrophic medical expenditure and generalized estimating equation to examine the factors influencing the incidence of catastrophic medical expenditure. The annual mean incidence rates of household catastrophic medical expenditure were25.1%, 15.4%, 10.1%, 5.4% and 3.2% in the threshold levels of 10%, 15%, 20%, 30%, and 40% respectively. Theincidence rate of household catastrophic medical expenditure was higher when the total annual household income waslower, the education level of the householder was lower, the healthcare coverage type was National Health Insurance,the householder had disability, the age of the householder was older, the number of household members was smaller,the subjective health status of household members was lower, and the prevalence rate of the chronic disease of thehousehold was higher(p<0.05). Therefore, a policy for vulnerable households with older or patient members of chronicdiseases should be established.