The world’s poorest pay for professional services and thus are in a “market,” whether the services are provided in the public or private sectors. The associated problems of unequal information are particularly acute in undergoverned countries, where state regulation is weak. We...

The success of China in its transition has received a great deal of attention from economists. At the same time, public health experts have accumulated evidence on setbacks within the Chinese health sector, particularly in rural areas. This paper puts these two bodies of knowledge together. It...

Improvements in rural health care in China in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s were largely due to the development of cooperative medical schemes (CMSs) and the establishment of a three-tier rural health network. Since the economic reforms were instituted in the late 1970s, the financing and delivery...

South Africa is one of the world's most unequal societies and its health sector mirrors these inequalities. Since the first democratic elections in 1994 the government has been under enormous pressure to diminish disparities between population groups in access to health services. This paper...

A large majority of China's rural population were members of health prepayment schemes in the 1970's. Most of these schemes collapsed during the transition to a market economy. Some localities subsequently reestablished schemes. In early 1997 a new government policy identified health prepayment...

One unforeseen consequence of the change from collective to household production in rural China has been that the financial basis of the rural health services has been eroded. The majority of peasants now pay for health care on a fee-for-service basis. A major initiative aimed at the...

As a result of China's transition to a socialist market economy, its rural health services have undergone many of the changes commonly associated with health sector reform. These have included a decreased reliance on state funding, decentralisation of public health services, increased autonomy...

This paper is concerned with the management of health system changes aimed at substantially increasing the access to safe and effective health services. It argues that an effective health sector relies on trust-based relationships between users, providers and funders of health services, and that...

Many Asian countries are in the midst of multiple interconnected social, economic, demographic, technological, institutional and environmental transitions. These changes are having important impacts on health and well-being and on the capacity of health systems to respond to health-related...