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Universal health coverage for inclusive and sustainable development. A synthesis of 11 country case studies.

MAEDA, Akiko
ARAUJO, Edson
CASHIN, Cheryl
HARRIS, Joseph
IKEGAMI, Naoki
REICH, Michael R.
et al
2014

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Universal health coverage (UHC) for inclusive and sustainable development synthesises the experiences from 11 countries—Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, France, Ghana, Indonesia, Japan, Peru, Thailand, Turkey, and Vietnam—in implementing policies and strategies to achieve and sustain UHC. These countries represent diverse geographic and economic conditions, but all have committed to UHC as a key national aspiration and are approaching it in different ways. The UHC policies for each country are examined around three common themes: (1) the political economy and policy process for adopting, achieving, and sustaining UHC; (2) health financing policies to enhance health coverage; and (3) human resources for health policies for achieving UHC. The path to UHC is specific to each country, but countries can benefit from experiences of others and avoid potential risks

Moving towards universal health coverage: health insurance reforms in nine developing countries in Africa and Asia

LAGOMARSION, G
GARABRANT, A
ADYAS, A
OTOO, N
MUGA, R
September 2012

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The implementation of national health insurance reforms designed to move towards universal health coverage by 9 low-income and lower-middle-income countries in Africa and Asia  is reported. Five countries at intermediate stages of reform (Ghana, Indonesia, the Philippines, Rwanda, and Vietnam) and four at earlier stages (India, Kenya, Mali, and Nigeria) are considered. These countries’ approaches to raising prepaid revenues, pooling risk, and purchasing services are described using the functions-of-health-systems framework. Their progress across three dimensions of coverage: who, what services, and what proportion of health costs is assessed using the coverage-box framework. Patterns in the structure of these countries’ reforms including use of tax revenues to subsidise target populations and steps towards broader risk pools are identified. Trends in progress towards universal coverage, including increasing enrolment in government health insurance and a movement towards expanded benefits packages are reported. Common, comparable indicators of progress towards universal coverage are needed.

Successful leadership : country actions for maternal, newborn and child health

PARTNERSHIP FOR MATERNAL, NEWBORN AND CHILD HEALTH
2008

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This document provides country-specific summaries of actions taken on a national level to improve maternal and child health. The summaries do not provide a comprehensive assessment of the progress made by individual countries, but demonstrate the importance of five factors: 1. Successful political leadership (Thailand) 2. Sound health policies (Indonesia and Tanzania) 3. Effective financing (Mexico) 4. Strong health systems (Nepal and Senegal) 5. Action to achieve equity (Bangladesh and Chile). Each summary covers: progress on MDGs, supportive policies and interventions, outcome, and key lesson

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