Abstract

The use of health care services can have a significantly positive impact on the well-being of the population. In fact, in 2019/20, Moroccans spend nearly 5.0% of their budget on health care at the expense of other essential household goods and services, leading to impoverishment.

The share of direct health expenditures in the total budget is one of the targets of the 2030 Agenda in the framework of MDG3 through the percentages of the population whose share of direct health expenditures in the total household budget exceeds 10% or 25%.

A high share of direct health expenditures in household expenditures generates the so-called catastrophic expenditures (WHO, 2005), which push them into poverty and economic vulnerability.
The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a change in household consumption behavior. Henceforth, households attach more importance to health expenditures, either for preventive or curative purposes.

In Morocco, the share of health expenditures in the household budget has risen from 5.0% in 2019 in the pre-Covid period to 6.7% in 2021/22 during the pandemic.
What would be the impact of this pandemic on catastrophic household health expenditures? What is the evolution of the share of households whose direct health expenditures in their total budget exceed the critical thresholds of catastrophic expenditures? What would be the impact of this evolution on the impoverishment of Moroccan households?

This article proposes to answer these questions according to the following plan: After a presentation of the data used and the methodology adopted for the calculation of catastrophic health expenditures, we analyze the results obtained through a univariate and bivariate descriptive analysis on the one hand, and through an econometric modeling on the other hand, allowing us to explain the main factors contributing to the tipping of households towards impoverishment due to catastrophic health expenditures during the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition to the economic and social factors of Moroccan households, the main focus will be on the role of health coverage in household resilience to the catastrophic expenditures generated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The data used in this work refer to recent surveys conducted by the HCP, namely the National Income Survey (NIS) 2019/20 and the third round of the national survey on the impact of covid on the economic and social situation of Moroccan households in 2021/22.

Keywords: Covid-19, Catastrophic Expenditures, Direct Payments, Household Impoverishment, SDG3.