BACKGROUND Despite Canada's universal health insurance coverage, many Canadians still report an unmet need for health care. I investigated whether not having prescription drug insurance increases the likelihood of reporting an unmet need for health care. I hypothesized that people without prescription drug insurance would be more likely than those with insurance to report an unmet health care n...

BACKGROUND Maternal mortality is a major public health problem worldwide especially in low income countries. Most causes of maternal deaths are due to direct obstetric complications. Maternal mortality ratio remains high in Rukungiri district, western Uganda estimated at 475 per 100,000 live births. The objectives were to identify types of community involvement and examine factors influencing t...

A new approach to universal health insurance combining managed competition and global budgets promises to break the impasse blocking comprehensive health reform. The central innovation is the development of regional health insurance purchasing cooperatives (HIPCs) as managers and reorganizers of the market and platforms for global budgets. Financing would be based on community-rated premiums, w...

OBJECTIVES The increasing of potential medical demand in China has threatened the health of the population, the medical equity, accessibility to medical services, and has impeded the development of Chinese health delivery system. This study aims to understand the mechanism of the increasing potential medical demand and find some solutions. METHODS We constructed a system dynamics model to ana...

BACKGROUND Out of pocket payments are the predominant method of financing healthcare in many developing countries, which can result in impoverishment and financial catastrophe for those affected. In 2010, WHO estimated that approximately 100 million people are pushed below the poverty line each year by payments for healthcare. Micro health insurance (MHI) has been used in some countries as mean...

Introduction In India, health care is provided by a mix of government and private providers. While the government health services are ostensibly free, in reality, studies have shown that people have to pay for medicines, diagnostics and other procedures. People approaching the private sector usually end up making out-of-pocket payments (OOP). This has two effectsit can be a substantial and ineq...

BACKGROUND Routine cancer screening for cervical, breast, and colorectal cancers reduces disease-associated morbidity and mortality through early detection and treatment. Lack of access to health care is a major barrier to screening in immigrant populations. OBJECTIVES We aimed to characterize compliance with national cancer screening guidelines and to assess predictors of screening complianc...

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES To obtain experiential data regarding African American older adult survivors' perceptions of and recommendations on the role of community health workers (CHWs) in providing a cancer navigation intervention. RESEARCH APPROACH Focus groups. SETTING Rural Virginia and urban Maryland. PARTICIPANTS 48 African American solid-tumor cancer survivors, aged 65 years or older, wit...