APPROACHES TO STUDY THE BURDEN OF ILLNESS

Ill health and, therefore, the need for healthcare can affect the allocation of existing resources of households. Healthcare demand depends on many factors, one of the most visible and important being healthcare costs.  There are different approaches to study the economic burden of healthcare. The article discusses the different methodological approaches to study the burden of illness. The approaches include cost of illness approach (direct and indirect cost), human capital approach (Grossman 1972) and frictional cost approach (productivity loss), out-of-pocket expenditure on health and catastrophic expenditure. Some empirical evidence on the impact of the burden of healthcare on the households’ economy is highlighted.