Health expenditures' coping strategies: a study on African low-income countries

Abstract

In the absence of formal coping mechanisms in the face of health expenditures, households are forced to penalize their resources and to use one or more strategies. Those strategies include using own resources, selling assets or borrowing from others outside the household. We show that different factors influence how families in developing countries cope with health spending. Given the data available, the study identifies the relevant factors to recognize households in financial distress due to health expenditures. Their fragile position is proven to be mainly characterized by the size of the family, educational level, location of the household and asset ownership quintile.