This paper is an excursion into the operation of the recently launched National Health Insurance Scheme of Nigeria. Its primary task is to determine whether social health insurance in Nigeria, as expressed in the statute establishing the scheme, has prospects for actualizing its promise of,...

This article examines the impact of theWorld Bank’s Safe Motherhood Project (SMP) on health outcomes for Indonesia’s poor. Provincial data from 1990 to 2005 was analyzed combining a difference-in-differences approach in multivariate regression analysis with matching of intervention (SMP) and...

This article analyzes the difficulties surrounding justiciability of the right to health care in Nigeria and the implications for access issues. It argues that claims denying justiciability on the grounds of an absence of a legal foundation and/or paucity of resources are misplaced. This...

In this paper, the use of delay as a tool to improve income redistribution is examined. We assume that people with the highest opportunity cost of waiting address their demand to the private market; if these, as we assume, are the one at the higher end of the income distribution, they contribute...

A special issue of the Bulletin of the World Health Organization in December 2007 presented an interesting theme of public health education, and how to link public health education to practice. In the editorials, Viroj Tangcharoensathien and Phusit Prakongsai raised a concern on training needs...

Individuals' reproductive choices are private matters, but sexual conduct and pregnancy impose significant public health burdens. Ethical principles of public health are distinguishable from principles applied in modern bioethics. Bioethical principles have been developed at the clinical or...

This symposium article recounts recent litigation by several states over a provision of the Medicare Modernization Act Part D prescription drug benefit: The clawback, which requires states to pay the a potentially substantial portion of new federal program. I then examine the unique federalism...

Recent policy developments in public health care systems lead to a greater diversity in health care. Decentralisation, either geographically or at an institutional level, is the key force, because it encourages innovation and local initiatives in health care provision. The devolution of...

We examine the effect of publicly provided health care on welfare by combining local level data on public health care, and individual level data on life satisfaction. It is shown that relatively high expenditures in health care have a positive effect on individuals' life satisfaction in our...