Can people afford to pay for health care?: new evidence on financial protection in Ireland

Overview

This review is the first comprehensive analysis of financial protection in the Irish health system. Drawing on microdata from the household budget surveys carried out by the Irish Central Statistics Office in 2009–2010 and 2015–2016 (‎the latest data available at the time of publication)‎, it finds that:

• in 2015–2016, 1.2% of households experienced catastrophic out-of-pocket payments and close to 1% of households were impoverished or further impoverished after out-of-pocket payments;
• catastrophic health spending is heavily concentrated among the poorest quintile and among people with medical cards;
• the incidence of catastrophic spending increased slightly during the study period, mainly among the poorest quintile; and
• catastrophic spending among the poorest quintile is driven by out-of-pocket payments for outpatient medicines, particularly in 2015–2016.