'Reforming China s Rural Health System' examines the performance and workings of China s rural health system leading up to the reforms of the 2000s, outlines the reforms, and presents some early evidence on their impacts. The authors outline ideas for building on these reforms to further strengthen China s rural health system, covering health financing and health insurance, service delivery, and public health. The authors conclude by using the experiences of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries to gaze into China s future, asking not only what China s health...

This paper presents unique evidence on health workers' career choices in Ethiopia. It shows that challenges like health workers' limited willingness to work in rural areas, as well as their likelihood to migrate abroad vary substantially and are correlated with background, motivation, and job satisfaction. Governments in Africa have identified human resources for health as a priority to improve health outcomes. This study is a valuable resource to better understand health worker choices and help toward the design of more effective human resource policies. This working paper was produced as...

It has been over twenty years since the Brazilian Sistema Unico de Saude (Unified Health System or SUS) was formally established by the 1988 Constitution. The impetus for the SUS came in part from rising costs and a crisis in the social security system that preceded the reforms, but also from a broad-based political movement calling for democratization and improved social rights. Building on reforms that started in the 1980s, the SUS was based on three overarching principles: (i) universal access to health services, with health defined as a citizen's right and an obligation of the state; (ii)...