The Relationship between Unmet Healthcare Needs Due to Financial Reasons and the Experience of Catastrophic Health Expenditures

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between unmet healthcare needs due to financial reasons and catastrophic health expenditures. Methods: This study used secondary data from the 2014~2015 Korean Health Panel survey. The subjects of this study were 21,495 people aged 20 or older, and of them, there were 16,227 people aged 20 to 64 and 5,268 people aged 65 or older, which were surveyed between 2014 and 2015. The association between unmet healthcare needs due to financial reasons and catastrophic health expenditures was analyzed through logistic regression. Results: In 2015, 1.7% of people aged 20~64 years and 7.9% of those aged 65 or older experienced unmet healthcare needs due to financial reasons. In the 20~64 age group, people who repeatedly experienced catastrophic health expenditures (=10%,=20%) were less likely to experience unmet healthcare needs due to financial reasons than those who did not experience catastrophic health expenditures for two years (OR=0.50, OR=0.41). However, in the 65-or-older group, people who repeatedly experienced catastrophic health expenditures (=20%) were more likely to experience unmet healthcare needs due to financial reasons than those who did not experience catastrophic health expenditures for two years (OR=1.68). Conclusion: A greater percentage of the elderly repeatedly faced both catastrophic health expenditures and unmet healthcare needs due to financial reasons compared to the non-elderly.