BACKGROUND Limited evidence exists on the utilization of surveillance colonoscopy in colorectal cancer (CRC) screening programs. We assessed adherence to physician recommendations for surveillance in opportunistic CRC screening in Germany. METHODS A follow-up study of screening colonoscopy participants in 2007-2009 in Saarland, Germany, was conducted using health insurance claims data. Utiliz...

BACKGROUND Native Hawaiians, representing 25% of Hawai'i's population, suffer socioeconomic and health strains as evidenced by overrepresentation in low-wage jobs without health insurance and a higher prevalence of chronic disease compared with Hawai'i's other ethnic groups. Native Hawaiians are more likely to attend community colleges than 4-year colleges and have high dropout rates. OBJECTI...

Background Micro health insurance schemes have been implemented across developing countries as a means of facilitating access to modern medical care, with the ultimate aim of improving health. This effect, however, has not been explored sufficiently. Objective We investigated the effect of enrolment into community-based health insurance on mortality in children under 5 years of age in a health ...

BACKGROUND Many countries striving to achieve universal health insurance coverage have done so by means of multiple health insurance funds covering different population groups. However, existence of multiple health insurance funds may also cause variation in access to health care, due to the differential revenue raising capacities and benefit packages offered by the various funds resulting in i...

Background The government of Ghana introduced the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in 2004 with the goal of achieving universal coverage within 5 years. Evidence, however, shows that expanding NHIS coverage and especially retaining members have remained a challenge. A multilevel perspective was employed as a conceptual framework and methodological tool to examine why enrolment and retent...

There is growing evidence that community financing mechanisms can raise additional revenue, increase equitable access to primary health care (PHC), and improve social protection. More recently there has been interest in scaling up community financing as a step towards universal coverage either via tax-based systems or social health insurance. Using key informant interviews and focus group discu...

BACKGROUND One of the biggest challenges in subsidizing premiums of poor households for community health insurance is the identification and selection of these households. Generally, poverty assessments in developing countries are based on monetary terms. The household is regarded as poor if its income or consumption is lower than a predefined poverty cut-off. These measures fail to recognize t...

V 1 seems to be an unfortunate fact of life that getting elected requires political parI ties to make sweeping promises in relation to any issue on which they feel vulner^ able. Such promises then have a strong tendency to stifle debate and creative thinking in areas where these are plainly needed. One such area in Australia is the goods and services tax, so closely associated with the failure ...