Financial Wellbeing during Covid-19 Pandemic: Concerns about Medical Costs; [Covid-19 Salgını Sırasında Finansal Refah: Tıbbi Maliyetlerle İlgili Endişeler]

Financial wellbeing which represents a great concern for individuals regardless of their social status or their current employment situation constitutes an important element of overall individual wellbeing. Within a broader structure of financial wellbeing, concerns about medical costs have gained a vital importance particularly following the pandemic. Identifying what factors influence this growing concern is critical to tackle with the problem and improve individual wellbeing. Hence, this study is expected to shed light on such an important individual and national concern. To that end, this paper utilizes Global Financial Inclusion Database which is based on national representative surveys of about 128,000 adults across more than 120 countries. Empirical analysis in which ordered probit model was applied aims to investigate if there exists an association between financial concerns about medical costs and COVID-19. Findings of the empirical investigation reveal that being in the group of those who are very worried about financial hardship due to Covid-19 outbreak increases the probability of reporting being very worried about medical cost payments by about 34.5 percentage points. Therefore, it is seen that pandemic detrimentally related to individuals’ increased concerns over medical costs. These findings are expected to guide policy makers on the management of healthcare system and measures to improve individual wellbeing.