Factors Affecting Perceived Financial Burden of Medical Expenditures

Time Trend of Out-of-pocket Expenditure among Cancer Inpatients: Evidence from Korean Tertiary Hospitals

“…At the same time, the medical utilization of cancer patients was also greatly increased. According to statistics of the NHI claims, the inpatient care performance for patients diagnosed with neoplasm (C00-D48) increased as follows: the number of patients increased from 331,055 in 2004 to 506,311 in 2010, the LOS increased from 11,393,760 in 2004 to 19,628,508 455,943/2,900 3,742,432/3,269 3,947,331/3,854 3,810,849/3,988 3,736,173/4,021 3,848,233/3,490 3,882,147/3,041 4,068,954/3,519 Considering that the subjective economic burden for medical expenditures is larger for elderly individuals, the unemployed, and those with a higher proportion of medical expenditures among household expenditures (Choi et al, 2011), patients' subjective economic burden is especially great for cancer patients. The medical expenses incurred by cancer that are the responsibility of patients are relatively high compared to the expenses caused by other diseases (Langa et al, 2004;Wagner and Lacey, 2004).…”