OBJECTIVES: Psoriasis is an increasing cause of morbidity in developing and in industrialized regions. The aim of our study was to calculate the annual health insurance treatment cost of psoriasisin Hungary.

METHODS: The data were derived from the financial database of the Hungarian National Health Insurance Fund Administration (NHIFA), the only health care financing agency in Hungary. We analyzed the number of patients and the health insurance treatment cost for the year 2017. The following cost categories were included into the study: out-patient care, laboratory diagnostics, medical imaging, acute in-patient care, chronic in-patient care and drugs. Patients with psoriasis were identified with the following codes of the International Classification of Diseases 10^threvision: L40.

RESULTS: Number of patients admitted to in-patient hospital care was 5,333 (50.6 % women and 49.4 % men) with a mean age of 59.78 years (women: 59.93 years; men: 59.62 years). The number of patient underwent outpatient care was 41,614 (50.8 % women and 49.2 % men) with a mean age of 53.40 years (women: 53.86 years; men: 52.93 years). For the treatment of patients with psoriasis in 2017 the Hungarian National Health Insurance Fund Administration spent 2.569 billion Hungarian Forint (HUF) which equals 8.309 million Euro (EUR). Major cost drivers were pharmaceuticals (38.7 % of total health insurance costs), acute inpatient care (37.0 %) and outpatient care (14.4 %).

CONCLUSIONS: Psoriasisrepresent a significant burden for the Hungarian health insurance system. This disease proved to be equally common among Hungarian women and men. There was no significant difference in the onset of the disease between women and men