Inequalities in medicine use in Central Eastern Europe: an empirical investigation of socioeconomic determinants in eight countries

Table 1 Pharmaceutical policies and equitable access to medicines: a framework for analysis

	Macro level	Micro level
FINANCING	Sustainable funding	Affordability
	Addressing financial issues on macro levels: the availability of funding for health care in general and the level of pharmaceutical spending more specifically	Addressing financial issues on micro levels: who pays and how much, thus the role of public and private payments for pharmaceuticals
	Categories of indicators: type of health care system, total health expenditure, pharmaceutical expenditure	Categories of indicators: private health expenditure, private pharmaceutical expenditure, co-payments, informal payments, medicine prices, VAT on medicines, policies addressing the poor
DELIVERY	Rational selection and use	Availability and accessibility
	Addressing delivery on macro levels: which medicines, at least potentially, are made available, rational prescribing, dispensing and use of medicines in the health care system	Addressing delivery on micro levels: the issue of supply meeting demand in terms of volume and reachability given distances and travel resources
	Categories of indicators: INN prescribing, generic market, reference price system, prescription monitoring, treatment guidelines	Categories of indicators: number of medicines, pharmacy density, OTC sale

Note: A definition of all the indicators chosen is given in Table 5 which provides a comparative overview for the eight study countries.

ISSN: 1475-9276