Household spending in pharmacies: how much and on what? Applied research in North Macedonia to improve tracking of health expenditure
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World Health Organization. Regional Office for Europe
Abstract
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x, 41 p.
Access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines is a central element of universal health coverage, and yet they are, in most countries, the main driver of out-of-pocket (OOP) spending on health and financial hardship. To address this challenge, evidence-informed decisions are required that can be tailored to the level of OOP spending on medicines and to the diseases and conditions for which people spend out of pocket in pharmacies. North Macedonia has made significant progress in recent years in developing a detailed and advanced tracking of health spending based on the System of Health Accounts 2011 framework. This report is based on applied research aimed at further improving the system for tracking OOP spending on pharmaceuticals, with the potential to inform policy-makers in other countries and in similar contexts. It is recommended that similar studies are conducted in other countries of the WHO European Region to improve the tracking of OOP spending on medicines.
Access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines is a central element of universal health coverage, and yet they are, in most countries, the main driver of out-of-pocket (OOP) spending on health and financial hardship. To address this challenge, evidence-informed decisions are required that can be tailored to the level of OOP spending on medicines and to the diseases and conditions for which people spend out of pocket in pharmacies. North Macedonia has made significant progress in recent years in developing a detailed and advanced tracking of health spending based on the System of Health Accounts 2011 framework. This report is based on applied research aimed at further improving the system for tracking OOP spending on pharmaceuticals, with the potential to inform policy-makers in other countries and in similar contexts. It is recommended that similar studies are conducted in other countries of the WHO European Region to improve the tracking of OOP spending on medicines.