When the Thai universal coverage (UC) scheme was established, the government decided to exclude renal replacement therapy (RRT) for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients from the benefit package, though RRT was included in two other public health insurance schemes. Access to RRT for UC members...

This is a brief essay discussing some key aspects of the current debates on medical corruption and malpractices in India. I highlight few illustrations from recent research and argue that the falling standards of medical practice in the country is a fallout of a combination of dwindling ethical...

The southern state of Kerala in India is known for greater status of women and low gender bias in society. However, the social and human development in Kerala have not been congruent to the economic emancipation of women, and paradoxically, female labour force participation has been on the...

The paper reports findings from a quality assessment exercise based on respondents' perceptions on different domains of service quality in a comparative manner between public and private health facilities in rural West Bengal, India. Based on a sample survey, and a combination of ex-ante and...

Natural disasters can lead to significant changes in health, economic, and demographic outcomes. However, the demographic effects of earthquakes have been studied only to a limited degree. This paper examines the effect of the 2001 Gujarat earthquake, which killed more than 20,000 people,...

Objective: To evaluate the quality of essential care during normal labour and childbirth in maternity facilities in Uttar Pradesh, India. Methods: Between 26 May and 8 July 2015, we used clinical observations to assess care provision for 275 mother-neonate pairs at 26 hospitals. Data on 42 items...

We use panel data on household consumption combined with information taken from the medical records of women who gave birth in health facilities to explore the economic consequences of maternal ill health, in the context of a rural population in Bangladesh. We find that households are able to...

We measure the adoption of management practices in over 220 private for-profit and non-profit health facilities in 64 districts across Tanzania and link these data to process quality of care metrics, assessed using undercover standardised patients and clinical observations. We find that better...