Health Financing in Developing Countries: Synthesis of Applied Field

This document presents the results from the applied research in health care financing in over 40 countries around the developing world conducted by the Health Financing and Sustainability (HFS) Project. It describes the conceptual framework and outlines for the agenda for the research. It presents the research results, summarizes the findings and policy recommendations, and points to areas for future research to support policy reform. There are nine general topics of research covered: 1. Quality of care and cost recovery 2. Protecting the poor under cost recovery 3. Efficiency in consumption 4. Provider incentives 5. Extending social financing 6. Public-private differences in efficiency 7. Private sector development 8. Public-private collaboration 9. Reallocating public sector spending