ArticleAmerican journal of public health2011
Household expenditures for medicines and the role of free medicines in the Brazilian public health system.
Article in American journal of public health, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- The online purchase of medicines - an international pharmacists' perspective.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
- Corporate social responsibility to improve access to medicines: the case of Brazil.Globalization and health · 2017Article
- Catastrophic expenditure on medicines in Brazil.Revista de saude publica · 2016Article
- Use of the Brazilian People's Pharmacy Program by older adults.Revista de saude publica · 2016Article
- Is the Brazilian pharmaceutical policy ensuring population access to essential medicines?Globalization and health · 2012Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
objectivesWe sought to investigate, across different socioeconomic groups, the proportion of household medicine expenses that were paid by households and the proportion paid by the Brazilian national health system.
methodsWe carried out a survey in Porto Alegre, Brazil, that included 2988 individuals of all ages. We defined 2 expenditure variables: "out-of-pocket medicines value" (the sum of retail prices of all medicines used by family members within the previous 15 days and paid for out of pocket) and "free medicines value" (a similar definition for medicines obtained without charge).
resultsIn 2003, the Brazilian national health system provided, free of charge, 78% of the monetary value of medicines reported (79% in the bottom wealth quintile and 32% in the top 2 quintiles). The mean out-of-pocket expense for medicines was 6 times greater among the top wealth quintiles compared with those in lower quintiles, but free medicines constituted a 3-times-greater proportion of potential expenditures for medicines among the bottom quintile than among the top 2 quintiles.
conclusionsFree provision of medicines seems to be saving substantial amounts of medicine expenditures for poor people in Brazil.
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