Hospitals remain an important source of critical health care services in most countries, providing both basic and advanced care to their populations. They are often the provider 'of last resort' for the critically ill and poor. Yet hospitals also make up the largest expenditure category of the health system both in developed and developing countries. 'Innovations in Health Service Delivery' offers insights into recent trends in the reform of public hospitals, with a focus on organizational changes such as increased management autonomy, corporatization, and privatization. This book also...

With a special focus on strategic purchasing and contracting of services from nongovernmental providers, 'Spending Wisely' reviews ways to make public spending on health care more efficient and equitable in developing countries. The underlying premise is that it is necessary to separate the function of financing from service delivery to improve public sector performance and accountability. In moving from passive budgeting to active purchasing of health care, the authors recommend policymakers ask five fundamental questions: for whom to buy, what to buy, from whom to buy, how to pay and at...

Financial protection against the cost of illness and inclusion of vulnerable groups will require better mobilization and use of private means. Private voluntary health insurance already plays an important role in mobilizing additional resources to the health sector and protecting against the catastrophic cost of illness in some countries. This review explores the context under which private voluntary health insurance could contribute to an improvement in the sustainability of the health sector and financial protection in other countries."

Health insurance can offer protection against catastrophic medical expenses and improve access to health care. There are, however, imperfections in the insurance market that require intervention such as asymmetry of information between the policy holder and the insurance company, moral hazard that can occur on the side of the insured or the provider of health services, risk selection that may lead to cream skim a particular market, and others. To encourage the effective development of Voluntary Private Health Insurance, it will be necessary for policymakers to establish and enforce regulatory...