Improving access to the formal health care sector is a primary public health goal in many low-income countries. But the returns to this access are unclear, given that the quality of care at public health facilities is often considered inadequate. We exploit temporal and geographic variation in the cost of traveling to formal sector health facilities to show that treatment at these facilities im...

Editorials 210 In March 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) released a report 1 on the status of water and sanitation in health-care facilities from 54 low-and middle-income countries. Data representing 66 000 health facilities show that water was not readily available in about 40%. 1 Over a third of facilities lacked soap for hand washing a...

PROBLEM Undocumented migrant workers are generally ineligible for state social security schemes, and either forego needed health services or pay out of pocket. APPROACH In 2001, the Thai Ministry of Public Health introduced a policy on migrant health. Migrant health insurance is a voluntary scheme, funded by an annual premium paid by workers. It enables access to health care at public facilit...

BACKGROUND In Bangladesh, abortion is restricted except to save the life of a woman, but menstrual regulation is allowed to induce menstruation and return to non-pregnancy after a missed period. MR services are typically provided through the Directorate General of Family Planning, while postabortion care services for incomplete abortion are provided by facilities under the Directorate General o...

OBJECTIVES To compare availability, cost, affordability and sources of anti-diabetic drugs between private and public health facilities in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. DESIGN Cross sectional descriptive study. SETTING Diabetic clinics in private and public health facilities in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. SUBJECTS Eighty patients randomly selected and 45 health facility personnel staff working in...

This study assesses the preparedness of long-term care facilities in Texas responding to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. A 41-item questionnaire was mailed to facilities; the response rate was 42%. Among responding facilities, 4513 residents were evacuated, and 6% of respondents reported resident death. Financial losses were reported by 8% of nursing facilities and 45% of assisted living facilitie...

In a resource-constrained society in developing nations like India, the importance of health care infrastructure allocation is often undermined and overlooked. This paper aims to quantify the gap in accessing affordable health care facilities faced by the socio-economically weaker sections of society. Majority of the older cities in India have a central core and surrounding peri-urban areas, wh...