Friday, March 7, 2008

[EQ] Health Insurance Initiatives - Reaching the Poor Policy Brief Series

Reaching the Poor Policy Brief Series

World Bank Institute with financial support from the Government of the Netherlands - 2008

Website: http://go.worldbank.org/O5U5WKVJ40

The Reaching the Poor Policy Brief Series aims to share with a large policy and advocacy audience evaluated examples of health programs and projects that have successfully made health sector spending more progressive.

This Policy Brief Series is produced by the World Bank Institute with financial support from the Government of the Netherlands with the dual objectives of
(i) sharing evaluated experiences showing that it is possible to tackle inequalities in the health sector in order to
(ii) generate a global dialogue on this often neglected issue.

The second installment of two briefs focuses on public private partnerships in health provision from Cambodia and Tanzania, and the third two, on health insurance initiatives from Colombia and Mexico. Electronic file versions are available in English, French, Spanish and Russian.

Community Involvement

· India: Community-Based Women's Trade Union Brings Health Care to the Poor
English (pdf 154kb) | French (pdf 171kb) | Spanish (pdf 157kb) | Russian (pdf 158kb)

· Nepal: Participatory Planning Improves Reproductive Health for Disadvantaged Youth
English (pdf 131kb) | French (pdf 157kb) | Spanish (pdf 138kb) | Russian (pdf 175kb)

Health Insurance Initiatives

· Colombia: Using Proxy-Means Testing to Expand Health Insurance for the Poor
English (pdf 194kb)

· Mexico (Segura): Providing Subsidized Health Insurance for the Poor
English (pdf 132kb)

Public Private Partnerships

· Cambodia: Contracting Health Care Services for the Rural Poor
English (pdf 150kb)

· Tanzania: Social Marketing for Malaria Prevention - Increasing Insecticide Treated Net Coverage
English (pdf 137kb)

* * * *

This message from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO/WHO, is part of an effort to disseminate
information Related to: Equity; Health inequality; Socioeconomic inequality in health; Socioeconomic
health differentials; Gender; Violence; Poverty; Health Economics; Health Legislation; Ethnicity; Ethics;
Information Technology - Virtual libraries; Research & Science issues. [DD/ IKM Area]

“Materials provided in this electronic list are provided "as is".Unless expressly stated otherwise, the findings
and interpretations included in the Materials are those of the authors and not necessarily of The Pan American
Health Organization PAHO/WHO or its country members”.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PAHO/WHO Website: http://www.paho.org/
EQUITY List - Archives - Join/remove: http://listserv.paho.org/Archives/equidad.html

    IMPORTANT: This transmission is for use by the intended recipient and it may contain privileged, proprietary or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient or a person responsible for delivering this transmission to the intended recipient, you may not disclose, copy or distribute this transmission or take any action in reliance on it. If you received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by email to infosec@paho.org, and please dispose of and delete this transmission. Thank you.

[EQ] Global action on health systems: a proposal for the Toyako G8 summit

Global action on health systems: a proposal for the Toyako G8 summit

Prof Michael R Reich, Prof Keizo Takemi, Prof Marc J Roberts and Prof William C Hsiao

The Lancet, Volume 371, Number 9615, 8 March 2008

Available online at: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673608603840/fulltext

[Free subscription required]

“….Global efforts to improve health conditions in poor countries have embraced two different strategies in recent decades, one focusing on health systems, the other on specific diseases. The interactions of these two strategies have shaped where we stand today….

”…..Health system improvement involves more than metrics; it requires attention to the political economy, values, and cultural dimensions of how health systems work. It requires an interest in and expertise about the details of system structuring (in finance, payment, regulation, and organisation management), as well as a commitment to reject a one-size-fits-all approach in favour of conditional guidance adapted to each country's specific situation. A responsible, independent, international research organisation is needed to coordinate the country-level efforts, with accountability to the global community and rigorous reviews and transparent methods for assessment—something like a Cochrane Collaboration for health system improvement.

To advance this goal of enhanced learning, we believe that global health partnerships should agree to allocate a set portion of their funding for operational research and knowledge discovery in health systems. These funds would support efforts to improve the performance of health systems—by gathering together experiences around the world, assessing successes and failures, doing well-designed pilot projects, and assuring the dissemination of knowledge. The G8 summit provides an opportunity to articulate a global commitment to learning about strategies for strengthening health systems, and to propose explicit institutions and financing for enhancing shared learning in the future….”

Affiliations
a. Department of Population and International Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
b. Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
c. Research Institute of Science and Technology, Tokai University, Tokyo, Japan

* * * *

    IMPORTANT: This transmission is for use by the intended recipient and it may contain privileged, proprietary or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient or a person responsible for delivering this transmission to the intended recipient, you may not disclose, copy or distribute this transmission or take any action in reliance on it. If you received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by email to infosec@paho.org, and please dispose of and delete this transmission. Thank you.

[EQ] Role of cash in conditional cash transfer programmes for child health, growth, and development: an analysis of Mexico's Oportunidades

Role of cash in conditional cash transfer programmes for child health, growth, and development:
an analysis of Mexico's Oportunidades

Lia CH Fernald, Paul J Gertler and Lynnette M Neufeld

The Lancet, Volume 371, Number 9615, 8 March 2008

Available online at: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673608603827/fulltext

"……Many governments have implemented conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes with the goal of improving options for poor families through interventions in health, nutrition, and education. Families enrolled in CCT programmes receive cash in exchange for complying with certain conditions: preventive health requirements and nutrition supplementation, education, and monitoring designed to improve health outcomes and promote positive behaviour change. Our aim was to disaggregate the effects of cash transfer from those of other programme components.

Methods

In an intervention that began in 1998 in Mexico, low-income communities (n=506) were randomly assigned to be enrolled in a CCT programme (Oportunidades, formerly Progresa) immediately or 18 months later. In 2003, children (n=2449) aged 24–68 months who had been enrolled in the programme their entire lives were assessed for a wide variety of outcomes. We used linear and logistic regression to determine the effect size for each outcome that is associated with a doubling of cash transfers while controlling for a wide range of covariates, including measures of household socioeconomic status.

Findings

A doubling of cash transfers was associated with higher height-for-age Z score (β 0·20, 95% CI 0·09–0·30; p<0·0001), lower prevalence of stunting (−0·10, −0·16 to −0·05; p<0·0001), lower body-mass index for age percentile (−2·85, −5·54 to −0·15; p=0·04), and lower prevalence of being overweight (−0·08, −0·13 to −0·03; p=0·001). A doubling of cash transfers was also associated with children doing better on a scale of motor development, three scales of cognitive development, and with receptive language.

Interpretation

Our results suggest that the cash transfer component of Oportunidades is associated with better outcomes in child health, growth, and development.

Affiliations
a. School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
b. Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
c. Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Cuernavaca, Mexico

* * * *

"Materials provided in this electronic list are provided "as is".Unless expressly stated otherwise, the findings
and interpretations included in the Materials are those of the authors and not necessarily of The Pan American
Health Organization PAHO/WHO or its country members".
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PAHO/WHO Website: http://www.paho.org/
EQUITY List - Archives - Join/remove: http://listserv.paho.org/Archives/equidad.html

    IMPORTANT: This transmission is for use by the intended recipient and it may contain privileged, proprietary or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient or a person responsible for delivering this transmission to the intended recipient, you may not disclose, copy or distribute this transmission or take any action in reliance on it. If you received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by email to infosec@paho.org, and please dispose of and delete this transmission. Thank you.