A Comparative Study of Catastrophic Payment in Asia: A Revisit

Tuesday, May 3, 2016
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
(Pacific)
Philippines Conference Room
Encina Hall, Third Floor, Central, C330
616 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford, CA 94305
Speaker: 
  • Jui-fen Rachel Lu, Sc.D.

Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is a well-embraced policy goal in the 21th century, which aims to ensure financial risk protection while assuring access to quality care.  However, up to this date, out-of-pocket (OOP) payment remains the principal means of financing health care throughout much of Asia, which leaves people financially unprotected in the face of illness.  High OOP payment at point of service is likely to either make people become medically impoverished after paying for health care, or force people to forgo treatment needed, which is detrimental to one’s health.   This presentation is based on empirical results derived from EQUITAP  (Equity in Asia-Pacific Health Systems) Project II on catastrophic payment that aims to estimate the magnitude and distribution of OOP payments for health care in 23 countries and territories in the Asia-Pacific Region in 2007.  We also draw comparisons to the results in 2000 as changes arise due to various reforms implemented since 2000.

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rachel lu
Jui-fen Rachel Lu, is the Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the Center for East Asian Studies, Stanford University, and Professor in the Graduate Institute of Business and Management and Department of Health Care Management, College of Management, at Chang Gung University in Taiwan, where she teaches comparative health systems, health economics, and health care financing and has served as department chair (2000-2004), Associate Dean (2009-2010) and Dean of the College of Management (2010-2013).  She earned her B.S. from National Taiwan University, and her M.S. and Sc.D. from Harvard University, and she was also a Takemi Fellow at Harvard (2004-2005) and is an Honorary Professor at Hong Kong University (2007-2017). She cofounded the Taiwan Society of Health Economics (TaiSHE) in 2008 and is currently the President of TaiSHE (2014-2017).  Professor Lu also serves as a board director for the International Health Economics Association (iHEA) (2016) and a member of the Arrow Award Committee for iHEA (2014-2016).

Her research interests are in assessing the impact of the NHI program on health care markets and household consumption patterns, and comparative health systems in the Asia-Pacific region with a focus on equity performance.  She is a long-time and active member of the Equitap (Equity in Asia-Pacific Health Systems) research network.  Professor Lu has also been appointed to serve on several advisory boards to the Taiwan Ministry of Health and Welfare and National Health Insurance Administration, Ministry of Science and Technology.

She received the Minister Wang Jin Naw Memorial Award for Best Paper in Health Care Management in 2002 and was the recipient of the IBM Faculty Award in 2009.