Ke Xu

TL;DR: People, particularly in poor households, can be protected from catastrophic health expenditures by reducing a health system's reliance on out-of-pocket payments and providing more financial risk protection.

TL;DR: It is suggested that 150 million people globally suffer financial catastrophe annually because they pay for health services, and there is no strong evidence that social health insurance systems offer better or worse protection than tax-based systems do.

TL;DR: In most African countries, the health financing system is too weak to protect households from health shocks and formal prepayment schemes could benefit many households, and an overall social protection network could help to mitigate the long-term effects of ill health on household well-being and support poverty reduction.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors explored the impact of user fees on health service utilization and catastrophic health expenditures using data from National Household Surveys undertaken in 1997, 2000 and 2003, and found that the utilization among the poor increased much more rapidly after the abolition of fees than beforehand.

TL;DR: Reflections on the recent user fees debate are provided, drawing from the evidence presented and subsequent discussions at a recent UNICEF consultation on user fees in the health sector, and relates the debate to the wider issue of access to adequate healthcare.