This article addresses an emerging issue in health care systems: the impact of judicial rulings on public policy regarding financing and delivery of health care services, and the attendant tensions, contradictions and questions. In Colombia, HIV/AIDS patients' use of a legal instrument called tutela, or writ of protection, has produced abundant jurisprudence and prompted health authorities to r...

Many low- and middle income countries heavily rely on out-of-pocket health care expenditure. The challenge for these countries is how to modify their health financing system in order to achieve universal coverage. This paper proposes an analytical framework for undertaking a systematic review of a health financing system and its performance on the basis of which to identify adequate changes to ...

Children who are from racial and ethnic minority groups, are of low income, or are both are affected disproportionately by asthma. Despite advances in the treatment and management of asthma, including the development of guidelines for clinical practice, substantial racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities exist in both health care quality and health outcomes. Financial incentives generally...

This article analyzes the financial structures of the prevailing public and private health insurance mechanisms. Based on this analysis, it was concluded that the financial structures of health insurance mechanisms are deficient in that they neither produce efficiency in the consumption of health services, nor generate efficiency in the production of health services. On the other hand, closed-e...

Health care costs, and those for inpatient care in particular, pose a barrier to seeking health care, and cost be a major cause of indebtedness and impoverishment, particularly among the poor. The Ministry of Health in Nepal intends to initiate alternative financing schemes such as community and social health insurance schemes as a means to supplement the government health sector financing sour...

BACKGROUND The Millennium Development Goals call for a 75% reduction in maternal mortality between 1990 and 2015. Skilled birth attendance and emergency obstetric care, including Caesarean section, are two of the most important interventions to reduce maternal mortality. Although international pressure is rising to increase donor assistance for essential health services in developing countries,...

A fundamental principle of WHO’s work in health financing is the concept of universal coverage. This requires access for all people to appropriate promotive, preventive, curative and rehabilitative health care at an affordable cost. This is one requirement of health for all and is consistent with the principle of equity in access. The objective of universal coverage is also associated with equi...

background one common challenge to social systems is achieving equity in financial contributions and preventing financial loss. because of the large and unpredictable nature of some costs, achieving this goal in the health system presents important and unique problems. the present study investigated the household financial contributions (hfcs) to the health system.   methods the study investiga...

1 Health and Human Development Division, Pan American Health Organization, Washington, D.C., United States of America. Send correspondence to: Rubén M. Suárez-Berenguela, Pan American Health Organization, Health and Human Development Division, 525 23rd Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037-2895, United States of America; telephone: (202) 974-3482; fax: (202) 974-3675; e-mail: suarezru@ paho.org ...

Globalization is a key challenge facing health policy-makers. A significant aspect of this is direct trade in health services, a result of the rise of transnational corporations, challenges in health care financing, porous borders and improved technology creating the scope for increased 'foreign direct investment' (FDI) in health care. This has gathered momentum with the General Agreement on Tr...