The Growth of Non-State Hospitals in Indonesia and Vietnam : Market Reforms and Mixed Commercialised Health Systems

Indonesia and Vietnam have both experienced considerable growth in the private health sector in recent years. What are the policy implications of this growth?This paper, the third in a series on the role of non-state sector hospitals in Indonesia and Vietnam, reflects on the major themes of the country studies, how these relate to the literature on non-state providers and the implications for policy-makers and development partners.Assessing health service delivery from the perspective of commercialised mixed health systems (rather than purely public or private service delivery) shifts the key policy question from ‘how to engage the private sector' to ‘how to manage a mixed commercialised system of public and private actors' to achieve national health goals. This will require new approaches and new capacity in the use of a number of different policy and regulatory levers, combined and aligned with appropriate financing and payment incentives and with a stronger partnership between government, civil society and professional organizations