For humanitarian reasons and the concern for households' economic and health security, the health sector is at the center of global development policy. Developing countries and the international community are scaling up health systems to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and are improving financial protection by securing long-term support for these gains. Yet money alone cannot buy health gains or prevent impoverishment due to catastrophic medical bills; well structured, results-based financing reforms are needed. Unfortunately, global evidence of -successful- health financing...

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...