“Financially Palliative”: The Need to Address a Perplexing Financial Conundrum in Emergency and Critical Care

The terminology “Financially Palliative” is a pseudonym and refers to a unique challenge faced in countries where public healthcare insurance coverage is not robust and the percentage of out-of-pocket health expenditure continues to be high. Emergency and critical care healthcare expenditures in such circumstances usually pose additional burden as they are unforeseen expenses, disproportionately high, for which most people are unprepared. Such situations may lead into a vicious cycle that initiates with expenditure hesitancy and delay in definitive care, which in turn leads to deterioration in the patient’s condition and delay-related complications. This further fuels expenditure hesitancy due to uncertain prognosis and outcomes. The future threats posed by this issue are manifold, which are not only restricted to poor patient outcomes and diminishing physician morale but also hinder progress in science by influencing research outcomes/endpoints in areas where it is highly prevalent. Identifying and defining the problem with terminology is only the first step in working towards solutions. The issue needs to be addressed and mitigated before it spreads its roots deeper into our healthcare system.