Health Care Systems in Developing and Transition Countries: The Role of Research Evidence(Global Development Network series)

Health policy is a central preoccupation of many, if not all, developing countries. This innovative book presents a selection of ten studies illustrating that carefully conducted research can address common health policy issues.The studies included in this book exemplify the major gains to patients and citizens that can accrue from research efforts, stimulating research capacity in developing countries. Although many of the challenges confronting health systems are universal, it is often the case that research results derived from developed countries can be misleading when applied to low or middle-income settings. The authors also demonstrate the best examples of successful research on health policies and systems from diverse countries such as Argentina, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chile, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Sri Lanka and Taiwan. This insightful book will be a valuable research tool for academics, researchers and policymakers in economics and health. International agencies interested in applied research in health policy and economics will also find it a stimulating read.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Foreword Lyn Squire Introduction: Health System Performance, Finance and Design Diana Pinto Masís and Peter C. Smith PART I: HEALTH SYSTEM PERFORMANCE 1. Productivity Change in Health Services in Developing Countries: Some Empirical Estimates Ravindra P. Rannan-Eliya 2. Health Sector Outcomes in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka: A Tale of Two Countries Aparnaa Somanathan, Ravindra P. Rannan-Eliya and Tahmina Begum PART II: HEALTH SYSTEM FINANCING 3. Preventing Impoverishment, Promoting Equity and Protecting Households from Financial Crisis: Universal Health Insurance through Institutional Reform in Mexico Felicia Marie Knaul, Héctor Arreola-Ornelas, Oscar Méndez-Carniado and Martha Miranda-Muñoz 4. Community Prepayment of Health Care and the Willingness to Pay: Evidence of Rural Households in the Central Cameroon Joachim Nyemeck Binam, Diarra Ibrahim and Valère Nkelzok 5. Risk Segmentation, Moral Hazard and Equity in Chile’s Mandatory Health Insurance System Claudio Sapelli PART III: HEALTH SYSTEM DESIGN 6. The Impact of Public Health Insurance on Access and Equity: Peru’s Mother and Infant Insurance Program Miguel Jaramillo 7. Getting to the Heart of the Matter: Hospital Competition and Cardiac Patients in Taiwan Hsien-Ming Lien, Shin-Yi Chou, Jin-Tan Liu and Jason Hockenberry 8. Water for Life: The Impact of the Privatization of Water Services on Child Mortality Sebastian Galiani, Paul Gertler and Ernesto Schargrodsky PART IV: HIV/AIDS IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD 9. Antenatal Clinics, Patients and HIV Prevalence in Cambodia Vonthanak Saphonn, Leng Bun Hor, Sun Penh Ly and Samrith Chhuon 10. Rural Household Vulnerability to HIV/AIDS and Economic Efficiency in Southern Nigeria A.S. Oyekale Index

About the Author :
Edited by Diana Pinto Masís, Associate Professor, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana School of Medicine and Associate Researcher, Fedesarrollo, Bogotá, Colombia and Peter C. Smith, Emeritus Professor of Health Policy, Imperial College Business School and Institute for Global Health, London, UK