BACKGROUND A key objective of universal health coverage is to address inequities in the financial implications of health care. This paper examines the level and trend in out-of-pocket spending (OOPS) on health, and the consequent burden on Nepalese households. METHODS Using data from the Nepal Living Standard Survey for 1995-1996 and 2010-2011, the paper looks at the inequity of this burden a...

Abstract The Ghana National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) was established in 2003, Act, 2003 (Act 650), but later replaced with the 2012 852) to get rid of then “cash and carry” system paying for healthcare. aim scheme reduce cost healthcare provision increase access This paper investigates effect on utilization out-of-pocket payment, from providers’ perspective. study uses data seventh round ...

opportunity to fundamentally change the way health benefits are structured, and to reframe the national debate on healthcare to focus on the value of health services—not on cost or quality alone. In a VBID benefit, cost sharing is still utilized, but a “clinically sensitive” approach is explicitly designed to mitigate the adverse health consequences of high out-of-pocket expenditures. By aligni...

OBJECTIVE To explore what happened to poor women in Bangladesh once they reached a hospital providing comprehensive emergency obstetric care (EmOC) and to identify support mechanisms. DESIGN Mixed methods qualitative study. SETTING Large government medical college hospital in Bangladesh. SAMPLE Providers and users of EmOC. METHODS Ethnographic observation in obstetrics unit including in...

background equity of access to health and provider payment mechanism in healthcare is a worldwide debated. healthcare reforms are primarily designed to improve productivity, economic efficiency and quality of care; however, an appropriate reimbursement of healthcare providers for services offered to patients and marinating a robust payment mechanism are not elucidated yet. conclusions no single...

The Commonwealth Fund Survey of Older Adults reveals that adults ages 50 to 70 who rely on the individual insurance market for health coverage pay much higher premiums than their counterparts with employer coverage or Medicare. The survey found that in 2004, more than half (54%) of older adults with individual coverage spent $3,600 or more annually on premiums. A quarter (26%) spent $6,000 or m...

BACKGROUND One of the key functions of health insurance is to provide financial protection against high costs of health care, yet evidence of such protection from developing countries has been inconsistent. The current study uses the case of Ghana to contribute to the evidence pool about insurance's financial protection effects. It evaluates the impact of the country's National Health Insurance...