Trend of Changing the Share of Health Expenditures in the Total Cost of Urban and Rural Households in Mazandaran Province (2001-2018)

A part of the expenses of every household in all societies of the world is health expenditures, which can sometimes be disastrous for families. This study was conducted to investigate the change in the share of health expenditure from the total Household costs in Mazandaran province and the possible impact of health system reforms on it in Iran during the recent two decades, especially the Health Transformation Plan.

This is a retrospective descriptive-analytical study, based on quantitative and secondary data. The data required for this study was taken from the Statistics Center including household income and expenditure for a period of 18 years from 2001 to 2018. Descriptive statistics indicators and trend charts were used to describe the quantitative data, and to analyze household health expenditures, the t-test was applied in SPSS software.

The results of the study showed that on average, the share of health expenditures in the total household expenses was 12.04% for urban households and 11.36% for rural households that is more than the stated and expected limit of 10%. The trend of changes in the percentage of health expenditures from the total household expenses at the time of the research compared to the base year has been variable and in some years it has decreased and in some years it has increased.

The health system reforms have not ultimately led to the reduction of household health expenditure to less than the expected level and its increasing trend in Mazandaran province.This means the risk of catastrophc health expenditure among households still exist. Even with the implementation of subsequent plans, the achievement of the previous plan has been neutralized. Considering the importance of financial issues in universal health coverage and also the limited resources of the health sector, more detailed policies and plans should be designed and implemented to target vulnerable groups so that families' financial hardship is prevented as well as the possibility of universal coverage is increased to the maximum.