World Health Report 2010 - Background Papers
All →The World Health Report 2010 Background Papers were written to inform the process of developing the key messages of the World Health Report 2010; Health Systems Financing: The path to universal coverage.
Beyond significant change, in under-five mortality for instance, much progress remains to be made in achieving the Health...
UC policy in China is the outcome of protracted discussion and debate regarding the main challenges faced by the domestic health system as well as trends...
WHO Good Governance for Medicines programme: an innovative approach to prevent corruption in the pharmaceutical...
Corruption is a major obstacle to strengthening pharmaceutical systems and increasing access to quality medicines. In an effort...
Lessons learned from a community-based medisave experiment among rural women in the Indian state of Karnataka
One of the major challenges of global health financing is to develop systems that protect people against the financial risks of obtaining health care -...
Innovative financing mechanisms are key components in resource mobilization for global health and are of particular importance...
In recent years, health advocates and donors alike have increasingly recognized the ...
Expanding insurance coverage to informal sector populations: Experience from Republic of Korea
Expanding coverage of prepayment schemes to the informal sector is a challenge encountered by many developing countries. Because of the...
Health financing challenges and institutional options to move towards universal coverage in Nicaragua
Nicaragua is a low-income country with a gross domestic product of US$1,023 per capita in 2007 (CBN 2007), making it the...
Indigenous Health – Australia, Canada, Aotearoa New Zealand and the United States - Laying claim to a...
Improving the health of all peoples has been a call across the globe for ...
A major global health financing challenge is to develop national health financing systems, particularly in low- and middle-income...
The paper has four broad sections. Section-1 discusses the challenges to medicines’ financing in developing countries and highlights ...
Performance incentives for health in high-income countries key issues and lessons learned
During the last decade several new types of health provider performance incentive schemes have emerged under designations such as "Pay-for-Performance...
The role of institutional design and organizational practice for health financing performance and universal...
Common to many countries is their concern to establish a health financing system ...
Health conditions in Chile improved considerably over the last decades. Life expectancy at birth is eighty years for women and seventy-three...
The Joint Action and Learning Initiative on National and Global Responsibilities for Health
“In the 21st century, health is a shared responsibility, involving equitable access to essential care and collective defense against ...
Ghana's approach to social health protection
The need to develop domestic health financing systems that offer social health protection is now well established and much of the rationale was set...
Health promotion, disease prevention and public health programmes are recognized as cost-effective interventions. Because they are public...
The relative roles of the public and privateb sectors in healthcare provision have and continue to evolve over time. Reforms...
It is widely recognized that health care systems in most countries are performing poorly. Resources are being used in inefficient ways ...
There has been considerable debate recently about whether health services need to be free at the point of service to ensure equitable access. Cambodia...
Responding to the challenge of resource mobilization - mechanisms for raising additional domestic resources...
There is no magic formula for defining what is the correct or sufficient level of health spending in a particular country. Some countries like ...
Determinants of caesarean section rates in developed countries: supply, demand and opportunities for...
Caesarean section rates are high and continue to rise in developed countries. However, the impact of guidelines and ...
Ministries of Health in low- and middle-income countries have traditionally relied on project support as the main aid modality to support their development...
The link between aid and health spending, and the role that concerns about macroeconomic stability may play here, is an area of much...
Hypothecation of tax revenue for health
Hypothecating tax revenue is not inherently right or wrong. It depends crucially on whether citizens trust its government...
Inefficiencies due to poor access to and irrational use of medicines to treat acute respiratory tract...
Although there are treatment guidelines to inform prescribers on cost-effective use of...
Social health insurance (SHI) is one of the possible organisational mechanisms for raising and pooling funds to finance health services, along...
This paper analyses the impact of external aid for health on overall financing of the health sector in Viet Nam. Two aid modalities...
Medical Savings Accounts: What is at risk?
The concept of Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs) – that individuals save and pay for their own medical needs – emerged ...
Risk pooling and redistribution in health care: an empirical analysis of attitudes toward solidarity
Policy makers across the world stress the importance of ensuring adequate health care for all. A significant barrier to this objective...
The provision of healthcare services and the management of the various regimes ...
Protecting the poor against health impoverishment in Pakistan: proof of concept of the potential within...
Fairness in financing and financial risk protection is one of the three health system goals. Most health systems in...
Universal Coverage Scheme in Thailand: Equity Outcomes and Future Agendas to Meet Challenges
This short paper analyses the evidence on equity achievements as a result of strategic purchasing through the UC scheme, ...
Consumer over-indebtedness and health care costs: how to approach the question from a global perspective
Recent studies have examined the role of medical costs in declarations of personal bankruptcies within the United States. This paper...
How the contract model becomes the main mode of purchasing: a combination of evidence and luck in Thailand
Thailand introduced Social Health Insurance (SHI) for formal sector private employees with the promulgation of the Social Security ...
In April of 2009, China’s government announced its blueprint for health system reform and development for the next decade in an ...
Globally, 5.3 trillion dollars were devoted to health care in 2007. However, resources available ranged widely, from US$ 7439 in Luxembourg...
Community Health Insurance and Universal Coverage: Multiple paths, many rivers to cross
This paper examines community health insurance (CHI) as a means to an end, assessing CHI in the itinerary towards universal coverage....
The Region of the Americas exhibits a high degree of inequality when comparing the indicators of different countries and analyzing ...
New approaches to measuring deficits in social health protection coverage in vulnerable countries
At the global and national level, policy and decision makers are concerned about ...
Financial risk protection of National Health Insurance in the Republic of Korea:1995-2007
Universal coverage is an essential and accepted objective for most countries. It enshrines the key elements of how health systems can...
The case for paid sick leave
Over the last decades social protection programmes have been developed to mitigate damaging impacts from economic crises ...
Cost savings of switching private sector consumption from originator brand medicines to generic equivalents
In low- and middle-income countries, originator brand medicines generally cost substantially more than their generic equivalents. Patients...
Fiscal space for health in resource-poor countries
The rationale to develop national health financing systems, particularly in low-income countries, is now well established.These countries are challenged...
Health insurance systems in China: A briefing note
After the SARs outbreak in early 2003, greater attention was paid to health reform. Some 30% of poor households were reporting ...
Five years ago, the 58th session of the World health Assembly endorsed a ...
Demand Side Financing in Health: How far can it address the issue of low utilization in developing countries?
The concept of Demand Side Financing (DSF) in health originated in response to developing countries’ felt need to improve access...
Following more than ten years of consultations and discussions between all the ...
The Global Numbers and Costs of Additionally Needed and Unnecessary Caesarean Sections Performed per...
Cesarean section (CS) was introduced in clinical practice as a life saving procedure both for the mother and the baby. As...
The drivers of catastrophic expenditure: outpatient services, hospitalization or medicines?
Universal coverage and a reorientation towards primary health care is an international ...
Health services utilization and out-of-pocket expenditure at public and private facilities in low-income...
The size and role of the private sector in health care provision varies. In nearly all countries, regardless of economic development, ...