Financial protection of patients is considered a key component of health systems, and has been a consistent policy goal of the Department of Health. Of paramount importance in this regard are catastrophic health expenditures, which can severely restrict the access to much-needed services,...

Universal health coverage initiatives in Guinea have been hampered by insufficient budget allocations and inefficiencies. Nevertheless, data on the extent of catastrophic and impoverishing health expenditures in Guinea are scarce and outdated. The objectives of this study were to (1) identify...

Healthcare tends to play a crucial role in every country and its society. Appropriate and well-performing healthcare systems constitute an important aspect of national policy. The most important issue connected with this matter is the appropriate adjustment of the health financing system. That...

This paper assesses the relative efficiency of government spending on health care and education in Croatia by using the so-called Data Envelopment Analysis. The analysis finds evidence of significant inefficiencies in Croatia's spending on health care and education, related to inadequate cost...

The paper provides an analysis of the determinants of health spending differentials among the Italian Regions for the years 1998-2010. An original standardised spending framework is proposed that takes into account the appropriateness of the services provided and price/technical efficiency, as...

Background: Improvements in the financing of healthcare services are important for developing countries like India to make progress towards universal health coverage. Inpatient-care contributes to a big share of total health expenditure in India. India has a mixed health-system with a sizeable...

Background: In its pursuance of universal health coverage (UHC), the government of Benin is piloting a project of mandatory social insurance for health entitled "ARCH". Methods: We analysed budget data and ARCH documents, and conducted four observation missions in Benin between March 2018 and...