OBJECTIVES The government of China has introduced a National Essential Medicines Policy (NEMP) in the new round of health system reform. The objective of this paper is to analyse whether the NEMP can play a role in curbing the rise of medical expenditures without disrupting the availability of healthcare services at township hospitals in China. DESIGN This study adopted a pre-post treatment-c...

BACKGROUND The health sector in Lebanon suffers from high levels of spending and is acknowledged to be a source of fiscal waste. Lebanon initiated a series of health sector reforms which aim at containing the fiscal waste caused by high and inefficient public health expenditures. Yet these reforms do not address the issues of health equity in use and coverage of healthcare services, which appea...