Trust in the context of community-based health insurance schemes in Cambodia : villagers' trust in health insurers / Sachiko Ozawa, Damian G. Walker -- Methodological challenges in evaluating health care financing equity in data-poor contexts : lessons from Ghana, South Africa and Tanzania / Josephine Borghi, John Ataguba, Gemini Mtei, James Akazili, Filip Meheus, Clas Rehnberg, Di McIntyre -- The role of risk equalization in moving from voluntary private health insurance to mandatory coverage : the experience in South Africa / Heather McLeod, Pieter Grobler -- Purchasing health care in China : experiences, opportunities and challenges / Winnie Yip, Kara Hanson -- The impact of Nepal's national incentive programme to promote safe delivery in the district of Makwanpur / T. Powell-Jackson, B.D. Neupane, S. Tiwari, K. Tumbahangphe, D. Manandhar, A.M. Costello -- Protecting pro-poor health services during financial crises : lessons from experience / Pablo Gottret, Vaibhav Gupta, Susan Sparkes, Ajay Tandon, Valerie Moran, Peter Berman -- Service- and population-based exemptions : are these the way forward for equity and efficiency in health financing in low-income countries? / Sophie Witter -- From scheme to system : social health insurance funds and the transformation of health financing in Kyrgyzstan and Moldova / Joseph Kutzin, Melitta Jakab, Sergey Shishkin -- The double burden of disease in developing countries : the Mexican experience / Cristina Gutiérrez-Delgado, Veronica Guajardo-Barrón -- Reforming 'developing' health systems : Tanzania, Mexico, and the United States / Dov Chernichovsky, Gabriel Martinez, Nelly Aguilera -- The equity impact of the universal coverage policy : lessons from Thailand / Phusit Prakongsai, Supon Limwattananon, Viroj Tangcharoensathien -- Social health insurance and labor market outcomes : evidence from Central and Eastern Europe, and Central Asia / Adam Wagstaff, Rodrigo Moreno-Serra -- Overview / Dov Chernichovsky, Kara Hanson.

Low- and middle-income countries face major challenges to their health systems. These include a high burden of communicable disease and an emerging non-communicable disease burden. Coverage of effective services and interventions is inadequate and often constrained by funding availability. At the same time, the international financing environment is changing rapidly, with new funding streams becoming available in part as a response to the challenges of meeting the Millennium Development Goals. These countries have taken a diversity of approaches to health care financing policies and programs to face the old and emerging challenges. This is increasingly accompanied by conceptual and applied research which is contributing to our understanding of how different financing mechanisms can contribute to the overall objectives of a health care system. The goal of this volume is to assemble the best of this research and synthesize 'best practices' for the benefit of researchers, policy makers and high level administrators, dealing with all elements of health care financing and focusing on both middle- and low-income settings, to represent the experiences of all regions of the developing world.

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