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The original was posted on /r/worldnews by /u/euronews-english on 2023-12-13 15:26:06.
Too many Europeans pushed into poverty by healthcare costs, says WHO
Submitted 2 years ago by bot@lemmit.online [bot] to worldnews@lemmit.online
https://www.euronews.com/business/2023/12/13/where-in-europe-are-healthcare-costs-driving-poverty
autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] 2 years ago
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The rate of catastrophic health spending ranges across the continent, but the situation is most critical in Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Ukraine, where over 14% of households are affected by this issue.
In every country studied, the poorest 20% of households account for at least 40% of those with catastrophic health spending, and this number rises to over 70% in Croatia, Czechia, France, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and Ukraine.
Whilst the figures can be partially explained by taking into account the lower income of poorer households, there is an additional reason why catastrophic spending is more prevalent amongst this group, according to the WHO.
Due to the unaffordability of treatments, disadvantaged households are more likely to delay seeking professional medical care, meaning they may have to turn to resource-intensive, expensive emergency services to deal with aggravated conditions.
Across the 40 countries studied, financial hardship is predominantly caused by fees related to outpatient medicines, which account on average for 38% of out-of-pocket payments in households with catastrophic health spending.
Among other measures, the group also suggested that access to publicly financed healthcare shouldn’t be dependent on social health insurance contributions, as this often leaves the poor unprotected.
The original article contains 742 words, the summary contains 203 words. Saved 73%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!