Publication: Unmet Health Needs of Two Billion : Is Community Financing a Solution?
Date
2001-09
ISSN
Published
2001-09
Author(s)
Hsiao, William C.
Abstract
One of the most urgent and vexing
problem around the world is how to finance and provide
health care for the more than two billion peasants and
ghetto dwellers in low- and middle-income countries. Part I
of this paper develops a conceptual framework for community
financing and uses it to clarify and classify the variety of
community financing schemes. This section of the papers
discusses the impact of community financing schemes on
outcomes and compares them to several African countries.
Part II uses the conceptual framework developed above to
explain why some community financing schemes in Asia have
been successful and why some have failed. The review points
to a number of measure that governments could take to
strengthen such community financing. They include
subsidizing the premiums of the poor, providing technical
assistance to improve scheme management capacity, and
forging links with formal health care networks. Satisfaction
with the scheme was often related to the nature of direct
community involvement in their design and management. A
critical factor was the matching willingness and ability to
pay with the expectation of benefits to be received at some
later time. The review also highlighted several areas of
government actions that appear to have a negative impact on
the function of community financing schemes. Top-down
interference with scheme design and management appeared to
have a particularly negative impact on their function and sustainability.
Citation
“Hsiao, William C.. 2001. Unmet Health Needs of Two Billion : Is Community Financing a Solution?. HNP discussion paper series;. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/b0461a97-1920-5aad-86f6-6e3db586007b License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”