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. 2018 Apr 12;10(4):117.
doi: 10.3390/cancers10040117.

Public Health Care Financing and the Costs of Cancer Care: A Cross-National Analysis

Ana Iolanda Voda  1 , Ionel Bostan  2
Affiliations

Public Health Care Financing and the Costs of Cancer Care: A Cross-National Analysis

Ana Iolanda Voda et al. Cancers (Basel). .

Abstract

Expenditure and financing aspects in the healthcare system in general, and in cancer care in particular, are subjects of increasing concern to the medical community. Nowadays, it is imperative for the healthcare system to respond to the challenge of universal access to quality healthcare, by measuring the financial resources within the healthcare sector. The purpose of this review is to highlight the major gaps in the healthcare expenditures for all types of care, as well as on cancer and anti-cancer drugs across 28 European Union member states. The indicators taken into account are divided into two major groups: (1) healthcare expenditures for all types of care, and (2) healthcare expenditures on cancer and anti-cancer drugs. The programs used for our analysis are SPSS Statistics V20.0 (IBM Corporation, Armonk, NY, USA) and Stat World Explorer. The overall picture confirms that there are considerable disparities between the 28 countries in relation to their expenditures on health. The trend in public expenditures for all types of care, compared to the share of healthcare expenditures as a percentage of the GDP, shows the increase of health expenses between 2010 and 2014, but a lower rise compared to the total GDP increase. Healthcare expenditure on cancer (%THE) is rather low, despite the high cost associated with anti-cancer drugs. New treatments and drugs development will be increasingly difficult to achieve if the share devoted to cancer does not increase, and the lack of funds may act as a barrier in receiving high-quality care.

Keywords: cancer expenditure; public financing; public health.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Healthcare expenditure (% of GDP) percentage change in 2010 and 2014.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Total health expenditures on cancer: current prices for the 28 EU member states, 2014.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Health expenditures on cancer (per capita) for the 28 EU member states, 2014.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Expenditures of anti-cancer drug percentage change, 2010 and 2014 (26 EU countries).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Anti-cancer drug expenditure map, Romania and the 26 EU countries, 2014.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Anti-cancer drug expenditure map, Greece and the 26 EU countries, 2014.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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