Since 1994 there have been a number of radical changes in the public health care system in South Africa. Budgets have been reallocated, decision making was decentralised, the clinic network was expanded and user fees for primary health care were abolished. The paper examines how these recent...

Rationale: Some commentators on global capital and health care markets predict that global health care firms will penetrate markets outside their main domiciles and overwhelm smaller, local health care providers, using superior access to capital, cross-border economies of scale and expertise in...

Rationale: Although the methods of economic evaluation are widely established, very few evaluations of public health interventions exist and existing reviews suggest that such evaluations raise additional methodological challenges. Objectives: To assess whether the economic evaluation of public...

In this article, we discuss the public health provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). We first set forth a framework to identify the key reforms that are needed for a robust public health system. These include workforce and infrastructure investments. We then assess...

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), particularly the ones that are health-related, hold special significance for Africa in that they incentivize countries in the region to: first, look beyond their shores to strategies being implemented by others to improve the health and wellbeing of their...

With today’s escalating demands for accountability, Canada’s academic-linked health policy centres are feeling pressure from key funders to prove their effectiveness. At the same time, their contributions through applied health services and policy research and knowledge-transfer activities...

Lodhran/Rahim Yar Khan (RYK) model of primary healthcare is a home-grown experiment in Pakistan. The model envisaged transferring the management of primary healthcare facilities to a public sector NGO. The paper finds that through the re-alignment of interest groups, the model was replicated in...

We analyse the major economic issues raised by the 1997 Tobacco Resolution and the ensuing proposed legislation that were intended to settle tobacco litigation in the United States. By settling litigation largely in return for tax increases, the Resolution was a superb example of a "win-win"...

We analyse the major economic issues raised by the 1997 Tobacco Resolution and the ensuing proposed legislation that were intended to settle tobacco litigation in the United States. By settling litigation largely in return for tax increases, the Resolution was a superb example of a "win-win"...

This short comment argues that both cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) should be seen as imperfect tools for evaluating health policy. This is true, not only for extra-welfarists, but even for welfarists, since both CBA and CEA can deviate from the use of social...