While in OECD countries households pay on average 40% of the cost of pharmaceuticals out of pocket, in Kazakhstan, the figure is 84% (OECD, 2018). Medicines prescribed in primary care are generally paid for by the patient, and only provided free of charge for patients with a listed “socially significant disease”. It is not known, however, the extent to which hospital drug coverage (in terms of quantities) is available for any given condition. To alleviate the cost burden of medicines for patients, the government has been gradually expanding the outpatient medicine benefit package since its introduction in 2005, but high OOP costs persist.