Contents Introduction 2 1. Poverty, health and international development goals 4 case study China 6 case study Brazil 7 2. Models of health care financing 8 case study Chile 12 case study India 13 3. .Basic values and core principles of social health insurance systems 14 case study South Korea 15 3.1. Solidarity 16 3.2. Plurality of function and organisation 16 3.3. Self-administration and code...

Does the social safety net improve welfare? Conventional wisdom says that means-tested social safety net programs improve welfare because they provide partial insurance against large negative shocks by guaranteeing a minimum consumption floor, but some economists have argued that they may also discourage labor supply and reduce capital accumulation. Furthermore, recent research suggests that th...

This article asks ‘who gets what, when and how’ from China’s recent social welfare expansion. Little research to date examines the overall landscape of China’s social health insurance, which has changed dramatically since 2003, and the distributive consequences and implications thereof. Drawing on public survey data and fieldwork for empirical support, this article finds that China’s recent soc...

Japan was the first Asian country to introduce social insurance measures and it has expanded them during the last few decades. The first social insurance law was passed in 1922, dealing with worker’s health insurance, and it was followed by the National Health Insurance in 1938, Seamen’s Insurance in 1939, and Employees’ Pension Insurance in 1921. However, these were seldom widely available in ...

Japan was the first Asian country to introduce social insurance measures and she has expanded them during the last few decades. The first social insurance law was passed in 1922 dealing with worker’s health insurance in general. It was followed by many schemes of social insurance. National Health Insurance in 1938, Seamen’s Insurance in 1939, Employees’ Pension Insurance in 1941 and so forth. A...