Health fee exemptions: controversies and misunderstandings around a research programme. Researchers and the public debate
نویسنده
چکیده
Our research programme on fee exemption policies in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger involved sensitive topics with strong ideological and political connotations for the decision-makers, for health-workers, and for users. Thus we were confronted with reluctance, criticism, pressures and accusations. Our frank description of the shortcomings of these policies, based on rigorous research, and never polemical or accusatory, surprises political leaders and health managers, who are accustomed to official data, censored evaluations and discourse of justification.
منابع مشابه
Two Wrongs Do Not Make a Right: Flaws in Alternatives to Fee-for-Service Payment Plans Do Not Mean Fee-for-Service Is a Good Solution to Rising Prices; Comment on “Fee-for-Service Payment - An Evil Practice That Must Be Stamped Out?”
Professor Naoki Ikegami’s “Fee-for-service payment – an evil practice that must be stamped out” summarizes many of the failings of alternatives to fee-for-service (FFS) payment systems. His article also offers several suggestions for improving FFS systems. However, even powerful arguments against many of the alternatives to FFS, does not make a convincing argument for FFS systems. In addition, ...
متن کاملApplying change management models to the revalidation of an undergraduate Accounting & Finance programme – a study in the UK higher education
Obtaining exemptions from professional bodies’ examinations has become important for institutions in the higher education sector and there is a growing attention to provide such exemptions to graduating students. However, incorporating necessary changes to the teaching syllabus and meeting the required changes in assessments and other areas of teaching and the related syllabus, can be difficult...
متن کاملDiagnosis of a public policy: an introduction to user fee exemptions for healthcare in the Sahel
During the last ten years, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have opted for selective user fee exemption policies, while remaining within the general framework of cost recovery. But they have each developed their own particular institutional mechanisms, different from those of their neighbour. This was the topic of a comparative research program combining both quantitative and qualitative surveys ov...
متن کاملEffects of User Fee Exemptions on the Provision and Use of Maternal Health Services: A Review of Literature
User fee removal has been put forward as an approach to increasing priority health service utilization, reducing impoverishment, and ultimately reducing maternal and neonatal mortality. However, user fees are a source of facility revenue in many low-income countries, often used for purchasing drugs and supplies and paying incentives to health workers. This paper reviews evidence on the effects ...
متن کاملFree versus subsidised healthcare: options for fee exemptions, access to care for vulnerable groups and effects on the health system in Burkina Faso
BACKGROUND The many forms of healthcare fee exemptions implemented in Burkina Faso since the 2000s have varied between total exemption (free) and cost subsidisation. This article examines both options, their contextual variations and the ways in which they affect access to healthcare for vulnerable people as well as the operation of the health system. This research is part of an interdisciplina...
متن کامل