This paper presents a South African case study as a contribution to international debates about the policy challenges posed by health sector commercialisation. It shows that the South African health system was highly commercialised before 1994, and fragmented between the private sector, serving...

While a large body of literature is concerned with the interplay of health and poverty in developing countries, comparable studies for developed countries are rare. Using data drawn from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), this paper investigates the relationships between changes in...

In many countries health policy has been guided by a focus on the supply side factors of access to health care, a lot of attention being directed at the availability of services. This paper concentrates on the demand side of access and investigates relational factors that may limit people's...

This paper presents the findings of a critical review of studies carried out in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) focusing on the economic consequences for households of illness and health care use. These include household level impacts of direct costs (medical treatment and related...