The Burkinabe government embarked on the process towards universal health coverage with the adoption of Law No. 060-2015/CNT on the Universal Health Insurance Scheme (RAMU) in Burkina Faso in 2015, and according to the defined timetable, 2018 should see the operationalization of this important program from every point of view for beneficiaries and health system players. The implementation of a health insurance scheme is highly complex, and requires a thorough understanding of all the issues involved. It should be noted that households, the main beneficiaries, will not necessarily be affected to the same degree: while some already benefit from coverage, others will incur catastrophic or impoverishing expenses.
The aim of this study is to measure the scale of catastrophic health and impoverishment expenditure among the population, and to identify the factors explaining the occurrence of this expenditure over the 2009-2014 horizon.