OBJECTIVES Vietnam started its health reform process two decades ago, initiated by economic reform in 1986. Economic reform has rapidly changed the socio-economic environment with the transition from a centrally planned economy to a market-oriented economy. Health reform in Vietnam has been associated with the introduction of user fees, the legalization of private medical practices, and the com...

1990’s were marked by massive introduction of user fee health care plans as a mean of improving efficiency by moderating demand, containing cost, and mobilize more funds for health care than existing sources provided. Introduction of user fees raised a lot of controversy with common claims that their implementation reinforced the poverty trap in developing world, which has considerable health a...

This chapter is concerned with the issue of user fees (or user charges) for public health services. We discuss the implications of user fees for cost-e¤ectiveness, allocative e¢ ciency, equity, progressivity of public health care spending, and quality of service. Each of these is a desirable end in itself, and so each is an important factor in the optimal pricing decision. They are not always c...

INTRODUCTION Burkina Faso started nationwide community case management of malaria (CCMm) in 2010. In 2011, health center user fees for children under five were abolished in some districts. OBJECTIVE To assess the effects of concurrent implementation of CCMm and user fees abolition on treatment-seeking practices for febrile children. METHODS This is a natural experiment conducted in the dist...

BACKGROUND: In developing countries, user fees may represent an important source of revenues for private-non-for-profit hospitals, but they may also affect access, use and equity. METHODS: This survey was conducted in ten hospitals of the Uganda Catholic Medical Bureau to assess differences in user fees policies and to propose changes that would better fit with the social concern explicitly pur...