BACKGROUND The improvement of maternal health has been one of the aims of the health financing reforms in Georgia. Public-private relationships are the most notable part of the reform. This study aimed to assess the strengths and weakness of the maternal care financing in Georgia in terms of adequacy and effects. METHODS A qualitative design was used to explore the opinions of key stakeholder...

BACKGROUND Neuropsychiatric conditions comprise 14% of the global burden of disease and 30% of all noncommunicable disease. Despite the existence of cost-effective interventions, including administration of psychotropic medicines, the number of persons who remain untreated is as high as 85% in low- and middle-income countries (LAMICs). While access to psychotropic medicines varies substantially...

Mental disorders account for a significant and growing proportion of the global burden of disease and yet remain a low priority for public financing in health systems globally. In many low-income countries, formal mental health services are paid for directly by patients out-of-pocket and in middle-income countries undergoing transition there has been a decline in coverage. The paper explores th...

BACKGROUND In Nigeria, women too often suffer the consequences of serious obstetric complications that may lead to death. Delay in seeking care (phase I delay) is a recognized contributor to adverse pregnancy outcomes. This qualitative study aimed to describe the health care seeking practices in pregnancy, as well as the socio-cultural factors that influence these actions. METHODS The study w...

–The Kenya government has over the years reiterated its commitment towards the provision of quality primary health care (PHC) to her populace. The various macroeconomic performance experienced in the late 1980s and early 1990s, however affected the government’s ability to sustain the continued provision of PHC. This is not only demonstrated by the high out-of-pocket spending but also low budget...

BACKGROUND Stroke services are a form of integrated care which have been introduced in many countries, including the Netherlands, to improve health outcomes and processes of care by connecting the acute, rehabilitative, and chronic phases of stroke care. Limited research exists on the effects of payment systems on the functioning of integrated care services from the perspectives of those involv...

BACKGROUND Equity in health care entails payment for health services according to the capacity to pay and the receipt of benefits according to need. In Uganda, as in many African countries, although equity is extolled in government policy documents, not much is known about who pays for, and who benefits from, health services. This paper assesses both equity in the financing and distribution of ...

Modelling the likely financial resource requirements and potential sources of revenue for health system reform options is of great potential value to policy-makers. Models provide an indication of the financial feasibility and sustainability of such reforms and highlight the implications of alternative reform paths. There has been increasing use of financial models of health sector reform in re...

We investigate risk selection between public and private health insurance in Germany. With risk-rated premiums in the private system and community-rated premiums in the public system, advantageous selection in favor of private insurers is expected. Using 2000 to 2007 data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), we find such selection. While private insurers are unable to select the h...

Prudent health care policies that encourage public-private participation in health care financing and provisioning have conferred on Singapore the advantage of flexible response as it faces the potentially conflicting challenges of becoming a regional medical hub attracting foreign patients and ensuring domestic access to affordable health care. Both the external and internal health care market...