The Distribution of Health Expenditures in Tehran’s Districts

Introduction: in 2000 world health organization (who) announced fairness in financial contribution to health care costs as one of the three goals of health systems. however, conducted studies in iran reflect the dire situation of health equity in terms of financing health care costs. the aim of the present study is to determine disparities in health expenditures by means of different approaches. materials and methods: the present study is a cross sectional health survey. the sample consisted of 792 households residing in 22 districts of tehran. the data were collected by who questionnaire. indices of ffc, ci in health expenditure, lorenz curve and catastrophic health care expenditure were used for measuring inequality in the distribution of health expenditures. excel software was used to perform the mathematical calculations. results: ffc index was 0.57 by optimized method and was equal to 0.62 by ordinary formulas. concentration index in outpatient services was -0.105, ci in inpatient services was 0.015 and for total health expenditures was equal to -0.044. also, 7.2 present of households were faced with catastrophic health expenditures. moreover, the results showed that insurance can be a reason for catastrophic expenditures by itself (45.6 percent of all households facing catastrophic costs). conclusion: the results indicated that there is a deep gap between the status of equity which is outlined in the 4th and 5th national plans of development and our current situation. so reforming financial, insurance and structural policies is crucially needed.