Ignorance about the costs, case loads and case mixes of different hospitals within the public health system constitutes an important obstacle to reforming health care spending in many developing countries. National (tertiary) hospitals generally receive significantly larger budgets, per patient,...

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is a serious and widespread public health problem in the Philippines. Initiated in 1993, the Philippines National Vitamin A Supplementation Program (NVASP) is one of the oldest, most mature and comprehensive of its kind. This paper presents a cost-effectiveness and...

Since the early 1980s, the Ministries of Health of most Developing Countries have been plagued by significant and persistent resource shortages. One response of many Third World countries to this health financing crisis has been to turn to user fees. This article presents a case study of the...