Association between Pilot Urban Family Physician Program and Health Financial Protection Measures in Fars and Mazandaran Provinces

Background and Objectives: Urban family physician program(UFPP), a program for improving equity in access to, financing, and quality of health services, is piloting in two provinces of Fars and Mazandaran, Iran since 2012. This study aimed to examine the association between the implementation of program and financial protection measures. Methods: This cross-sectional, ecological study was performed on aggregated data of financial protection measures and some independent variables in the above provinces from 2008 to 2015. At first, the Lasso regression model was used for selecting independent variables affecting financial protection indexes. After adjusting the selected independent variables, in separate models, the association between the UFPP and financial protection measures, as outcome variables, was examined using a backward linear regression model. Results: The percentage of households facing catastrophic health expenditure(CHE) in the years of UFPP implementation was 1.82% higher than the years before implementation(P0.05). Conclusion: Despite the achievements attained by UFPP in improving physical access to health services, it seems that this program has had no success in improving financial protection measures and equitable health care financing. However, further research is warranted in this regard.