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 ...

One of the missions of National Health Insurance (NHI) is to help the sick and the uninsured by providing access to medical services at an affordable cost in Taiwan. Nearly 98% of Taiwanese citizens are enrolled in this government-run, single-payer social insurance program. People can seek ambulatory care at around 9500 NHI-contracted physician clinics or at some 500 hospital-based outpatient d...

Major political parties remain publicly committed to Medicare and community-rated voluntary health insurance. It is important to understand the future financial consequences of this policy in order to assist community debate about whether such a commitment is appropriate or some other policy should be developed. This paper describes development of, and results from, the APHA health financing mo...

Background: Households’ financial protection against health payments and expenditures and equity in utilization of health care services are of the most important tasks of governments. This study aims to measuring equity in household’s health care payments according to fairness in financial contribution (FFC) and Kakwani indices in Tehran-Iran, 2013. Methods: This cross-sectional study was c...

The opportunity cost of inappropriate health policy decisions is greater in Central and Eastern European (CEE) compared with Western European (WE) countries because of poorer population health and more limited healthcare resources. Application of health technology assessment (HTA) prior to healthcare financing decisions can improve the allocative efficiency of scarce resources. However, few CEE...

background and purpose: to determine an appropriate financial model for the health system of iran, several studies have been conducted. but it seems that these studies were not comprehensive and further investigation is required. so to design a valid and enforceable mechanism, the study of policy interventions will be considered through consensus of all stakeholders. this investigation was done...

Egypt and Cuba are both lower-middle income countries with a history of socialist rule, which have embarked on economic liberalization since the 1990s. Cuba has achieved exemplary health status whereas health status in Egypt is lower than could be expected for its level of income. In this article, health care financing mechanisms in both countries are analysed on their effectiveness, efficiency...

The World Health Report 2000 (WHR 2000) is probably best remembered for trying to stack the health systems of different countries up against each other using a uniform set of measures (WHO 2000). Certainly, senior health officials in my own country (South Africa) repeatedly referred to our ranking of 175 out of 191 countries, in terms of overall health system performance, to highlight our pligh...

Following 25 years of landmark progress, health psychology faces even greater change in the foreseeable future. Evolving patterns of health and illness and developments in medicine and related fields will shape the future of health psychology. The articles in this special section discuss these future issues in several areas: the biopsychosocial model, changes in demographics, prevention, clinic...