Cost-sharing and pharmaceutical utilisation and expenditure in Russia

This paper presents estimates of the impact of exemption status, and other socio-economic variables, on pharmaceutical use in Russia. Estimates are de rived, from a newly collected household survey covering around four thousan d households. Separate results for a zero-inflated negbin model of utilisat ion of prescriptions and for a two-part model of the overall level of house hold expenditure on pharmaceuticals are presented. Full exemption from pres cription charges is shown to increase the utilisation of prescription items and reduce the probability of the households incurring drug expenditure. ( C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.