The prevalence of child undernutrition in India is among the highest in the world; nearly double that of Sub-Saharan Africa, with dire consequences for morbidity, mortality, productivity and economic growth. Drawing on qualitative studies and quantitative evidence from large household surveys,...

Providing protection against the financial risk of high out-of-pocket health spending is one of the main goals of the Philippines’ health strategy. Yet, as this paper shows using eight household surveys, health spending increased by 150 percent (real) from 2000 to 2012, with the sharpest...

This book describes the nature of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the health sector in Vietnam. It defines health-related PPPs, describes their key characteristics, and develops a taxonomy of the different types of PPPs that exist in practice, illustrated by international examples. It also...

This book examines how nine different health systems--U.S. Medicare, Australia, Thailand, Kyrgyz Republic, Germany, Estonia, Croatia, China (Beijing) and the Russian Federation--have transitioned to using case-based payments, and especially diagnosis-related groups (DRGs), as part of their...

Excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol products can be an effective instrument for promoting public health through curbing smoking and excessive drinking, while raising significant revenues for development priorities. In 2012, the Philippines successfully passed a landmark tobacco and alcohol tax...

This analysis aims to assess the association between commune health station (CHS) service readiness and health service utilization to inform the design of a World Bank project and policies to strengthen primary health care in Vietnam. Using data drawn from the 2015 Vietnam district and commune...

In December 2012, the government of the Philippines passed the Sin Tax Law (RA 10351) which restructured and raised tobacco and alcohol taxes, while earmarking 85 percent of the incremental revenues for health. Of this 85 percent, 80 percent was intended to be used to provide free health...

In recent years, the Philippines has seen a rapid expansion of health insurance coverage, especially among the poor. In particular, the implementation of the 2012 Sin Tax Law, which increased tobacco and alcohol excise tax and earmarked most of the incremental revenues for PhilHealth premium...

This paper uses a common household survey instrument and a common set of imputation assumptions to estimate the pro-poorness of government health expenditure across 69 countries at all levels of income. On average, government health expenditure emerges as significantly pro-rich, but there is...

This paper looks at differential progress on the health Millennium Development Goals between the poor and better-off within countries. The findings are based on original analysis of 235 Demographic and Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, spanning 64 developing countries over...