Financial burden of drug expenditures in Poland

This paper investigates the level of catastrophic out-of-pocket pharmaceutical (OOP) expenditures and their impoverishment effect in Poland.

We use data from a representative sample of Polish households covering 2000, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009. We estimate the incidence and intensity of catastrophic drug expenditure and its impoverishment effects using the methods introduced by Wagstaff and van Doorslaer. We obtain estimates for the full population and for the subsample of retired and chronically ill.

The incidence and intensity of catastrophic drug expenditures increased over the years and they are concentrated among the poor. The proportion of households that spent at least 10% of their income on pharmaceuticals reached 18% in 2009. This figure is higher than the evidence found in other countries for total health expenditure. Pharmaceutical expenditures increased poverty rates, and the evidence suggests that the poverty impact of OOP expenditures in the last decade was mainly driven by poor people becoming poorer. The effects are more conspicuous among the retired and chronically ill.

Our findings indicate that OOP pharmaceutical expenditures in Poland are a severe financial burden and that policies aimed at both lowering the price of effective drugs and decreasing consumption of the ineffective ones are needed.