Journal of

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Background: With more than 12 million new cases of cancers and nearly 7.6 million deaths all around the world in 2007, cancer currently is the third leading cause of death in the world. This study was conducted to determine medical and non-medical direct costs of cancer patients’ hospitalized in the cancer institute affiliated with Imam Khomeini hospital. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. All patients over 18 years old with kind of head, neck, and stomach cancers that undertaken of oncology treatments in the cancer institute which affiliated ” Imam Khomeini Hospital”. Initially eligible patients invited to participate in this study. The data was collected through structured interviews with patients and or their carers. The data, then, was analyzed by SPSS software. Results: The average medical and non-medical direct out-of-pocket costs during primary treatment were 2,609,000 and 245,000 Tomans per patient, respectively. Furthermore, the direct average of medical costs for patients who lived in Tehran and other cities were 3,313,000 and 1,870,000 Tomans while the direct average of non-medical costs for patients who lived in Tehran and other cities were 136,000 and 360,000 Tomans, respectively. Conclusion: The new policies for costs coverage related to cancer patients’, particularly the medical insurance organizations, financial supports from finance intuits like as banks or charity organizations, appropriate distribution of cancer’s centers or providing accommodation to cancer patients who are referred from the remote sites in other cities, and also achieving the equities in health sectors could be reduced the financial costs of cancer patients and might be helped them to manage of cancers efficiently and effectively

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Background: Insurance coverage has a tendency to alter the consumer and provider's behavior. Moral hazard is a serious problem in all risk pooling systems, such as insurance and taxes-based financial systems that cause negative consequences as increased costs in the health system. Therefore we decide, at this review article, to discuss about moral hazard, in different classifications and effects on the insurance marketing and health system.
Materials & Methods: This is a review article. Relevant materials selected from published articles, studies, and sites. The databases of Medline, Web of Science, Science Direct, Google Scholar, and Springer were explored to use the key words of moral hazard and health insurance.
Results: Insurance covered individuals, knowing that their health expenditures will be reimbursed by insurance in the time of illness, and their demand medical services are more than un insurance covered individuals. On the other hand the providers have financial incentive to provide unnecessary and excess medical services. Different types of moral hazard like as ex ante and ex post moral hazard hidden information and hidden action moral hazard provider and consumer moral hazard may arise due to insurance coverage. These lead to negative consequences such as consumption of unnecessary care services, alteration of consumption pattern for inefficient use of resources, welfare loss, and an increase in the health expenditures.
Conclusion: Studying and controlling the effects of moral hazards seems necessary to prevent unwelcome outcomes as well as misallocation of financial resources.

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Background: Achieving equitable financial contribution and removing the risk of households' exposure to catastrophic expenditures are the most important challenges for health systems all over the world. This study aimes to measure Iranian households' exposure to catastrophic health care expenditures and surveying the factors affecting this expenditure, based on the World Health Organization and the World Bank approach.
Materials & Methods: Sectional data of the World Health Survey in Iran in 2001 has been analyzed. This survey covered 10300 urban and rural households across the country. The catastrophic expenditure has been calculated based on the ability to pay in the thresholds of 40, 50, and 60 percent and the income at the threshold of 20 percent. Logistic regression model was used to examine factors influencing catastrophic health expenditures.
Results: The proportion of families confronting catastrophic health expenditures was estimated at 9-15 per cent. Facing catastrophic expenditures showed a statistically significant relationship with variables such as having a family member suffering from a chronic disease, family`s financial condition, and living in rural areas regardless of the thresholds used. The insurance coverage showed a statistically significant relationship with exposure of catastrophic health expenditure just in case it was measured using the 40% threshold.
Conclusion: Political interventions and policies of the government such as implementing fee exemptions for certain target groups, designing benefits packages, extending population coverage through prepayment mechanisms and protecting the poor and disadvantaged groups can protect households from experiencing catastrophic health expenditures.