Making drugs available and accessible to the poor remains an important health care objective in developing countries. The Bamako Initiative has introduced the concept of a revolving fund, where users pay for medicines, thereby contributing to the replenishment of the fund. However, the inability...

Very little is known about the Philippine health care system, and in particular its experience with social health insurance (SHI). Having initiated an SHI programme 35 years ago, the Philippines hold many lessons for the development of such schemes in other low and middle-income countries. We...

This article describes the Provincial Health Funds pioneered in two Provinces of Cameroon. These funds are non-profit associations and financed by the community through drug fees and--to a lesser extent--through fees for services. The financial objective of the Funds is the full coverage of both...

Since the Bamako Initiative was launched in 1988, many African countries have embarked on comprehensive primary health care programs relying, at least partially, on revenues generated through user fees to revitalize health care delivery systems. Although these programs contain two critical...