OBJECTIVES In recent years, the government of the Philippines embarked upon an ambitious Universal Health Care program, underpinned by the rapid scale-up of subsidized insurance coverage for poor and vulnerable populations. With a view of reducing the stubbornly high maternal mortality rates in the country, the program has a strong focus on maternal health services and is supported by a nationa...

This paper describes four alternatives for expanding childhood insurance coverage, discusses key health policy issues, and assesses the political possibilities for enacting universal coverage. Alternatives are (1) a single federal child health program for all children; (2) a hybrid federal child health program (replacing Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program [SCHIP]), combi...

Background Sudan established a National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) in 1995. NHIF, despite the name, is a social health insurance scheme that predominantly enrols the formal sector workers, compulsorily, and the informal sector workers, voluntarily. The Government is targeting universal health coverage by 2031, by expanding the existing scheme. This paper aims to assess the insurance enrolment...

Universal coverage requires a strategy to sever the link between insurance coverage and employment in order to build a more stable insurance base. Universality also will require subsidies to make coverage affordable. Given these realities, the authors evaluate different financing proposals--employer and individual premium mandates and taxes--in terms of equity, affordability, and administrative...

This study estimates the effect of universal coverage on the use and cost of health services by the uninsured. Adults lacking insurance for a full year have about 60 percent as many ambulatory contacts and about 70 percent of the inpatient hospital days they would have if they were covered by insurance. This "access gap" is only slightly smaller for children. Providing universal coverage would ...

In Germany, employees are generally obliged to participate in the public health insurance system, where coverage is universal, co-payments and deductibles are moderate, and premia are based on income. However, they may buy private insurance instead if their income exceeds the compulsory insurance threshold. Here, premia are based on age and health, individuals may choose to what extent they are...

CONTEXT Given that substantial proportions of women of reproductive age lack health insurance coverage, it is important to assess whether lack of insurance is associated with the use of prescription contraceptives, which are the most expensive but also the most effective methods for preventing pregnancy. METHODS Data from 26,674 females aged 18-44 who participated in the 2002 Behavioral Risk ...