BACKGROUND Researchers and implementers working in adolescent health, and adolescents themselves question whether government-run health services in conservative and resource-constrained settings can be made adolescent friendly. This paper aims to find out what selected low and middle income country (LMIC) governments have set out to do to improve the quality of health service provision to adole...

German health care financing is now at the crossroads of fundamental reform. The two main proposals that the new “grand” coalition government must take as its starting point for compromise could hardly be more polarized. The proposal favored by the left, the Bürgerversicherung, a Citizens’ Health Insurance that is compulsory for all, would introduce a new system of proportional taxation, based ...

Although Canada and the United States have fundamentally different systems for financing health care, there are many similarities between the two countries in their approaches to physician payment. The similarities have increased recently with the adoption of the Medicare fee schedule. Canadian provinces have been using fee schedules for more than 20 years. This article provides an overview of ...

BACKGROUND Inequalities in access to medications among people diagnosed with diabetes inlow- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is a public health concern since untreated diabetes can lead to severe complications and premature death. OBJECTIVE To assess evidence of inequalities in access to medication for diabetes in adult populations of people with diagnosed diabetes in LMICs. DESIGN We c...

Numerous reports have documented the problems of adequate insurance coverage. Among them, a 2004 report of the Center for Rural Affairs entitled Health Care in Rural America outlines the parameters of the problem for rural citizens. This report continues the discussion by examining some recent research that delves into the causes and consequences of inadequate health care financing in rural areas.

Deaths due to NCDs in LMICs are expected to increase from 30.8 million in 2015 to 41.8 million by 2030 [1]. While improvements in life expectancy, lifestyle and urbanisation go some way to explaining why more people in LMICs are affected by NCDs, it is less clear why these populations are contracting NCDs at a younger age and with worse outcomes than in high–income countries (HICs) [2]. Despite...

Urbanization is expected to increase in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), and might contribute to the increased disease burden. The association between urbanization and CKD is incompletely understood among LMICs. Recently, Inoue et al., explored the association of urbanization on renal function from the China Health and Nutrition Survey. The study found that individuals living in an urba...

Mental, neurological and substance use (MNS) disorders are now the leading cause of disability worldwide, contributing to 23% of global years of life lived with disability (Whiteford et al. 2013). Most of this burden is carried by lowand middle-income countries (LMICs). However, MNS disorders in LMICs do not receive the research attention or service personnel they deserve (Saxena et al. 2006), ...

External challenges to health systems, such as those caused by global economic, social and environmental changes, have received little attention in recent debates on health systems' performance in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). One such challenge in coming years will be increasing prices for petroleum-based products as production from conventional petroleum reserves peaks and demand s...

One of the challenges to maintain an agenda for universal coverage and equitable health system is to develop effective structuring and management of health financing. Global experiences with different systems of health financing suggests that a strong public role in health financing is essential for health systems to protect the poor and health systems with the strongest state role are likely t...