In order to maximize the TE of health systems, health policy-makers should pay special attention to the proper use of healthcare resources according to the people's needs, the appropriate management of the health system resources, allocating adequate budgets to the health sector, establishing an appropriate referral system to provide better public access to health services according to their income and needs, among many others.

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Background:Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs) as a result of traffic accidents are one of the major causes of deaths, which lead to the loss of individuals’ productive and working years of life.Objectives:This study aimed to calculate the economic burden of traumatic brain injuries in fatal crashes at Shahid Rajaei Trauma Hospital, Shiraz, Iran for a period of five years.Patients and Methods:In this descriptive, cross-sectional study the population included people who had died as a result of TBIs during 2009 to 2013 in Shiraz Shahid Rajaei Trauma Hospital. Cost and demographic data were obtained from the participants’ medical records using data gathering forms, and some other information was also collected via telephone calls to the victims’ families. Economic burden of TBIs due to traffic accidents, which led to death, was estimated using the human capital as direct costs of treatment, and the number of potential years of life lost and lost productivity as indirect costs.Results:Deaths resulting from TBIs due to traffic accidents in Shiraz imposed 6.2 billion Rials (511000 USD) of hospital costs, 6390 potential years of life lost, and 506 billion Rials (20 million USD) of productivity lost. In the present study, the mean age of the individuals who died was 38.4 ± 19.41 and the productivity lost per capita was 1.8 billion Rials (73000 USD).Conclusions:The findings of this study indicated that the economic burden of TBIs was high in fatal accidents in Fars Province so that it was equivalent to 0.00011% of Iran’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2013. Therefore, more attention has to be paid to the rules to prevent the fatal accidents.

Background: One of the main challenges of all health systems is achieving equity in healthcare financing. The Kakwani index is an equity index used to show how distant a financing source is from the proportional status. Objectives: The present study aimed to measure the equity of Iran's health system financing in rural and urban areas between 2001 and 2010 using the Kakwani index. Materials and Methods: This study analyzed secondary data for the years 2001 through 2010 in Iran. The data of annual household expenditures and an income survey conducted by the statistical center of Iran (SCI) were used in this study. In addition, out of pocket payments and health insurance premiums, as two sources of healthcare financing, were investigated regarding vertical equity. The T-test was used to test the dominance of the curves. Results: The Kakwani index was negative (regressive) for out of pocket payments among both rural and urban households (-0.168 in 2001 to -0.197 . The dominance test (T-test) showed the concentration curves of out of pocket payments in both areas dominated the Lorenz curve in all years, but the dominance test (T-test) for health insurance premium payments did not follow a regular trend during the study period. Conclusions: Due to the negativity of the Kakwani index for out-of-pocket payments, a great burden on the households can be predicted, and the progressivity of health insurance premium payments implies that expanding insurance coverage may lead to more equitable financing. Thus, the government should take the responsibility to expand the service and cost coverage of insurance plans and to develop policies that protect poor people.

Background Fair financial contribution in healthcare financing is one of the main goals and challengeable subjects in the evaluation of world health system functions. This study aimed to investigate the equity in healthcare financing in Shiraz, Iran in 2018. Materials and methods This was a cross- sectional survey conducted on the Shiraz, Iran households. A sample of 740 households (2357 persons) was selected from 11 municipal districts using the multi-stage sampling method (stratified sampling method proportional to size, cluster sampling and systematic random sampling methods). The required data were collected using the Persian format of “World Health Survey” questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed using Stata14.0 and Excel 2007. The Gini coefficient and concentration and Kakwani indices were calculated for health insurance premiums (basic and complementary), inpatient and outpatient services costs, out of pocket payments and, totally, health expenses. Results The Gini coefficient was obtained based on the studied population incomes equal to 0.297. Also, the results revealed that the concentration index and Kakwani index were, respectively, 0.171 and − 0.125 for basic health insurance premiums, 0.259 and − 0.038 for health insurance complementary premiums, 0.198 and − 0.099 for total health insurance premiums, 0.126 and − 0.170 for outpatient services costs, 0.236 and − 0.061 for inpatient services costs, 0.174 and − 0.123 for out of pocket payments (including the sum of costs related to the inpatient and outpatient services) and 0.185 and − 0.112 for the health expenses (including the sum of out of pocket payments and health insurance premiums). Conclusion The results showed that the healthcare financing in Shiraz, Iran was regressive and there was vertical inequity and, accordingly, it is essential to making more efforts in order to implement universal insurance coverage, redistribute incomes in the health sector to support low-income people, strengthening the health insurance schemes, etc.