BACKGROUND One of the objectives of the health transformation plan (HTP) in Iran is to reduce out-of-pocket (OOP) payments for inpatient services and eradicate informal payments. The HTP has three phases: the first phase (launched in May 5, 2014) is focused on reducing OOP payments for inpatient services; the second phase (launched in May 22, 2014) is focused on primary healthcare (PHC) and the...

BACKGROUND There is a global concern regarding how households could be protected from relatively large healthcare payments which are a major limitation to accessing healthcare. Such payments also endanger the welfare of households with the potential of moving households into extreme impoverishment. This paper examines the impoverishing effects of out-of-pocket (OOP) healthcare payments in Ghana...

The check clearing and electronic payments systems market are regulated and dominated to various degrees by the Federal Reserve System. This article examines the theoretical and empirical implications of a potential deregulation of this market within the context of three broad effects: price discrimination, network externalities, and anticompetitive pricing. While these are all legitimate conce...