PHA-Exchange> User fees for health caRe: a new key issues guide

[Claudio]

From: "Stuart Cameron" <S.Cameron at ids.ac.uk>

> User fees for health care: a new key issues guide
> -------------------------------------------------
> 
> Please find details below of a new Eldis Health Systems key is-
> sues guide which I hope will be of interest to all of you.
> 
> User fees - killer bills or vital funds?
> 
> User fees for health care are widespread around the developing
> world, but opposition to them is growing. Many studies have
> found them to be a barrier to the use of health services, par-
> ticularly among poor people. Amid concerns that they will pre-
> vent the Millennium Development Goals from being met, research-
> ers, advisers, and policy makers have questioned whether user
> fees should be applied at all.
> 
> Yet there are reasons to be cautious about abolishing user fees.
> Other financial barriers - such as the cost of purchasing drugs,
> unofficial fees, and transport costs - are often more important
> than user fees, and abolishing them would remove a relatively
> small, but often vital source of funding. Unless this funding is
> replaced from other sources, there could be adverse consequences
> for quality of service. User fees may also be a necessary part
> of other mechanisms for financing health care, such as insurance
> schemes. They therefore have to be seen within the broader con-
> text of health systems financing.
> 
> Produced in collaboration with the DFID Health Resource Centre,
> this new Eldis Health Systems key issues guide examines evidence
> on the impact of user fees and presents some of the ongoing de-
> bates in health financing policy. It considers arguments for and
> against abolishing fees, and provides recommendations for donors
> and governments on how fees should work if they are kept.
> 
> Access the guide at:
> http://www.eldis.org/healthsystems/userfees/
>