{"id":37514,"date":"2025-10-06T16:11:41","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T13:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ces.org.ua\/?p=37514"},"modified":"2025-10-15T17:10:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T14:10:23","slug":"260-how-does-the-love-of-self-medication-harm-the-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ces.org.ua\/en\/260-how-does-the-love-of-self-medication-harm-the-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"How does the love of self-medication harm the economy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhat\u2019s Up With the Economy?\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/a>\u00a0is a podcast by the Centre for Economic Strategy in cooperation with Hromadske Radio, supported by PrivatBank.<\/i><\/p>\n

Every week, hosts<\/i>\u00a0Anhelina Zavadetska<\/i><\/a>\u00a0and<\/i>\u00a0Maksym Samoiliuk<\/i><\/a>\u00a0talk with experts, entrepreneurs, analysts, and government officials about what is happening with Ukraine\u2019s economy.<\/i><\/p>\n

While the podcast is held in Ukrainian, we decided to summarise each issue with the most important insights.<\/i><\/p>\n

In the new episode, we talk with Maksym Obrizan, a leading Ukrainian economist and Associate Professor at the Kyiv School of Economics, about the economics of health during wartime.<\/span><\/p>\n

We discuss how Ukrainians\u2019 mental health affects productivity, the state budget, and GDP; why self-medication harms not only individuals but also public finances; and how the healthcare system could be reformed after the war.<\/span><\/p>\n

How the war affected Ukrainians\u2019 mental health<\/b><\/h3>\n

In May 2025, a survey of two thousand Ukrainians found that around 30% of respondents likely experience anxiety, and 28% \u2014 depression. These figures are nearly six times higher than pre-war estimates, indicating a serious decline in the nation\u2019s mental health. According to Maksym Obrizan, mental well-being largely depends on financial stability:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a certain group of people who do not even have enough money for food. Compared to this basic category, other households are much less likely to suffer from both depression and anxiety.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Financial instability and uncertainty about the future significantly increase the risk of mental disorders. People lacking basic resources are the most vulnerable to anxiety and depression, while households with at least minimal economic stability are less exposed to these risks. Thus, material security has become a key factor shaping the mental health of Ukrainians.<\/span><\/p>\n

The more money, the less anxiety<\/b><\/h3>\n

Depression and anxiety affect not only individual well-being but also the economy as a whole. Mental disorders reduce productivity, increase sick leave, and create indirect costs for businesses.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA person suffering from depression may not be able to go to work because their mental state prevents them from doing so. In many countries, losses from depression are measured in billions of dollars,\u201d Obrizan notes.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For Ukraine, where a third of the population lives in a state of constant stress, this has become not only a humanitarian but also an economic challenge for development.<\/span><\/p>\n

When healthcare becomes inaccessible<\/b><\/h3>\n

Even before the full-scale invasion, Ukrainians paid over 46% of their medical expenses out of pocket \u2014 one of the highest rates in Europe. This reflects not only the inefficiency of public programs but also a lack of trust in the healthcare system.<\/span><\/p>\n

Self-medication is common: many Ukrainians buy medicines without consulting a doctor. In the short term, it may seem cheaper, but for the system overall it leads to rising \u201ccatastrophic\u201d health expenditures \u2014 when the cost of treating a serious illness falls entirely on families and pushes them into poverty.<\/span><\/p>\n

The war has destroyed hundreds of hospitals and deepened the shortage of medical personnel. According to surveys, 16% of Ukrainians have lost access to medical services. The most vulnerable are those who lost property or were displaced \u2014 their likelihood of being left without treatment is 18% higher.<\/span>
\n<\/span> Despite this, as Obrizan notes, the Ukrainian healthcare system continues to function.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2010, half of patients paid doctors \u201cunder the table,\u201d whereas by 2023 this figure had dropped to 17%. On the one hand, this shows progress; on the other, it partly reflects a shift toward private healthcare. While the primary care level has improved significantly, secondary and specialized medicine remain in a \u201cgrey zone\u201d \u2014 with informal payments and low transparency in financing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why the insurance model doesn\u2019t work yet<\/b><\/h3>\n

Many countries have mixed healthcare systems \u2014 for instance, Germany has adopted an insurance-based model, while the United Kingdom finances its system through taxes. In both cases, the state has mechanisms to collect and redistribute funds, but for Ukraine such a model remains difficult to implement due to the high level of the shadow economy.<\/span><\/p>\n

A large share of wages remains off the books, complicating the formation of stable healthcare funding. Therefore, the key challenge is not only collecting funds but also using them effectively \u2014 with proper control, transparency, and minimal corruption risks. The ability of Ukraine\u2019s healthcare system to operate sustainably and meet people\u2019s real needs depends on this efficiency.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gender inequality in healthcare<\/b><\/h3>\n

Like most healthcare systems worldwide, Ukraine\u2019s relies heavily on the invisible labor of women \u2014 mothers, daughters, and wives who provide unpaid care for the sick, children, or the elderly. This work is not compensated but has a real economic cost: women spend time that could otherwise be used for paid work and often leave the labor market to take care of family members.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn most countries, it\u2019s women who bear the burden of caregiving. They spend dozens of hours doing unpaid work, yet it is not reflected in GDP,\u201d the economist reminds.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

During the war, this inequality has deepened: women are more likely to stay behind the frontlines, care for relatives, and combine employment with household responsibilities. For the healthcare system to remain resilient after the war, it is important to recognize this work as economically significant and to create mechanisms of compensation \u2014 for example, through social benefits or tax incentives.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s Up With the Economy?\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/a>\u00a0is a podcast by the Centre for Economic Strategy in cooperation with Hromadske Radio, supported by PrivatBank.<\/i><\/p>\n

The podcast is available in Ukrainian on different platforms by\u00a0the link<\/a>.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhat\u2019s Up With the Economy?\u201d\u00a0is a podcast by the Centre for Economic Strategy in cooperation with Hromadske Radio, supported by PrivatBank. Every week, hosts\u00a0Anhelina Zavadetska\u00a0and\u00a0Maksym Samoiliuk\u00a0talk with experts, entrepreneurs, analysts, and government officials about what is happening with Ukraine\u2019s economy. While the podcast is held in Ukrainian, we decided to summarise each issue with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":37461,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[666,200],"tags":[574],"experts":[462,525],"news_type":[138],"class_list":["post-37514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcasts","category-news-list-en","tag-social-policy-en","experts-maksym-samoiliuk-en","experts-anhelina-zavadetska","news_type-press-release"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ces.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ces.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ces.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ces.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ces.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37514"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/ces.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37852,"href":"https:\/\/ces.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37514\/revisions\/37852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ces.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ces.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ces.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ces.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37514"},{"taxonomy":"experts","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ces.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/experts?post=37514"},{"taxonomy":"news_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ces.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_type?post=37514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}