Sustaining splendid health has always been a wish for every employee of any formal organisation. If health is not excellent, employees are likely not to function as expected hence it is imperative to have social health insurance. This article reports on the findings derived from a research conducted in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. The researcher personally distributed structured questionnaires among employees in 15 organisations. Findings show that the majority of the respondents experience problems in organizing their health care where it emerged that, 1) the majority of the employees from public sector are not assisted in organizing their health care, 2) they use out-out-pocket financing means for their health care, 3) in general, employees from public sector are not aware of health insurance and interestingly employees from mix companies and private sector are knowledgeable on health insurance, 4) respondents with post matric qualifications prefer to use private hospital when they are sick, 5) employees choose health facility based on good quality service provided. In general, it emerged from the findings that there is willingness to pay contribution should the social health insurance be introduced.

BACKGROUND: In order to accelerate universal health coverage, Nigeria’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) decentralized the implementation of government health insurance to the States in 2014. Lagos has passed its State Health Scheme (LSHS) into law with a statewide roll out set to commence in 2018. The LSHS aims to improve access to quality care by reducing the financial burden of obtaining care for Lagos residents. Public and private healthcare providers are a critical component of this ambitious insurance roll out. Yet, little or no understanding exists on how to engage providers, the factors that influence their participation in insurance and expectations from the LSHS. In addition, little is known about the geographic distribution of NHIS accredited facilities and enrollees in Lagos State. METHODS: This study used a mixed-methods cross sectional design to analyze primary and secondary data. Primary data included both quantitative and qualitative data and were collected from representatively selected 60 healthcare providers in 6 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Lagos State through questionnaires probing issues on the challenges and benefits of insurance participation, capacity pressure, resource availability and changes in financial management. Secondary data were obtained from NHIS and Lagos State inventory of health facilities, and household survey reports, and were visually mapped using a geographic information system (GIS) software. RESULTS: Facilities participating in insurance were more likely to be bigger with mid to very high patient volume and workforce. In addition, private were more likely than public facilities to participate in insurance. Furthermore, increase in patient volume and revenue were motivating factors for providers to participate in insurance, while low tariffs, delay and denial of payments, and patients’ unrealistic expectations were inhibiting factors. Also, NHIS enrollees were more likely to be located in the urban than rural LGAs. However, many urban LGAs have larger population sizes and as a result, were also characterized with higher number of non-NHIS enrollees and fewer NHIS accredited facilities. For the LSHS, many private facilities anticipate an increased patient volume and revenue but also worry that low tariffs without guaranteeing a high patient volume would be a major challenge. For many public facilities, inadequate infrastructure, lack of workforce, and insufficient drugs and commodities remain major challenges. CONCLUSION: For the LSHS to be successful, effective contracting of healthcare providers especially those in the low income and densely populated LGAs is essential. However, this would require that provider payment is adequate and regular. In addition, the government would need to invest heavily in improving the infrastructure and the amount of workforce, drugs and commodities available to public facilities.

Magister Public Health - MPH / Introduction: Health Sector Reform was initiated as a component of the Structural Adjustment Policies that were imposed on the developing countries by the international monetary organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank during the 1980s and the 1990s. It included three main components, that is, financing reforms, decentralization and introducing competition to the health sector. Changes to the Egyptian health system were introduced in the 1980s through the cost recovery projects, while the Health Sector Reform Program was announced in 1997. This culminated in a change from a Primary Health Care model to a Family Health Model as regards the Primary Health Care sector of the Egyptian health system. Changes in the health systems have profound effects on people, so that it is essential to study the ongoing transformation of the Egyptian health system and its implications. Aim: The aim of the current study was to determine the acceptability of the Family Health Model, which replaces Primary Health Care, as currently implemented in Wardan Village, Giza, Egypt. Methodology: The study was a cross sectional survey utilizing a structured questionnaire that was used to determine the awareness and perception/satisfaction of the community members in an Egyptian rural area (Wardan village, Giza Governorate) towards the transformation from primary health care to family health model. 357 subjects participated in this study. Results: Awareness of the study participants towards the transformation process was 15.6%. The overall satisfaction with the family health unit by the participants was 80.5% compared with 35.7% for the old PHC one. Higher satisfaction was associated with older age (p=0.02), less education (p<0.001), being married in the past or present (p=0.02), working status (p=0.007), and more years of using the unit (p<0.001). Acceptability of the family health model among the participants of the current study was high at 88.3%. Higher score of acceptability were associated with less education (p<0.001), being or have been married (p=0.048), and with working status (p=0.005). 93.8% of the participants think that family health unit services are accessible and 79.9% of the participants think that the family health unit provides quality services. Conclusion: The Family Health Model has achieved successes when implemented but encountered some difficulties that have limited the gains and interfered with some of its aspects. The current study has shown that the Family Health Unit has gained a high score of satisfaction and acceptability by the study participants, although the awareness of the study participants about the transformation of the Primary Health Care Model to a Family Health Model was low.

Health is deemed central to a nation’s development. Accordingly, health care reform and expansion are key policy priorities in developing countries. Many such nations are now testing various methods of funding and delivering health care to local disadvantaged populations. Similarly, India launched the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) national health insurance programme for low-income groups in 2008. The RSBY intends preventing catastrophic health-related expenditure by improving recipients’ access to hospital-based care. This thesis is an in-depth qualitative evaluation of the RSBY in Delhi state. It examines the RSBY’s effectiveness in fulfilling its goals and meeting local health care needs. Walt and Gilson’s (1994) actors-content-process-context model informs the research design and an actor-centred “responsive” (Stake 1975) or “constructivist” approach guides data analysis. Three research questions are examined: (i). Why was a health insurance programme launched and why now? Why was this model favoured over alternate methods of service expansion? (ii). Is the RSBY delivered as intended? If not, why? (iii) How does the RSBY affect patients’ access to services? The findings are based on documentary sources, observation of implementation sites and activities and 164 semi-structured interviews with RSBY policymakers, insurers, NGOs, doctors, and patients. The results show improved access to curative and surgical care for RSBY patients. However, RSBY’s focus on hospitalisation and omission of primary and outpatient services had undesired negative effects. The lack of ambulatory facilities led RSBY patients to self-medicate or use dubious quality informal providers. By only allowing inpatient care, the RSBY also seemingly encouraged the substitution of outpatient care with costlier hospitalisations. In effect, the RSBY’s design contributed to cost increases and poor patient outcomes. While more funds and human resources were needed to improve RSBY implementation, the performance of frontline agencies could potentially improve through more stable, longer-term contracts. Similarly, modifying RSBY’s monetary incentives for doctors may lead to better service delivery by them. By evaluating the RSBY’s strong points and shortcomings, this thesis provides key lessons on strengthening policy design and health service delivery in developing countries. Thereby, it makes a broader contribution to understanding the determinants of successful policymaking.

Il est admis qu’avoir une mauvaise santé est une des causes principales de pauvreté,particulièrement dans les pays à faible et moyen revenus. Une des raisons de ce constat est une absence de protection financière. L’objectif de cette thèse est de discerner le rôle que l'assurance maladie pourrait jouer dans l'organisation du système de protection financière de la santé. La thèse se compose de deux parties. La première partie aborde les problèmes liés au financement de santé d’un point de vue global. Le chapitre 1 apporte des discussions théoriques sur trois thèmes: 1) les spécificités des risques de la consommation médicale qui rendent la gestion du risque par l’assurance maladie privé difficile, 2) le rôle du gouvernement et du marché dans la répartition des ressources de santé. 3) les options pour l'organisation du financement de la santé. Le chapitre 2 présente une comparaison statistique sur la performance des systèmes de financement de la santé entre des pays à contextes socio-Économique différents. Les discussions sont menées autour de trois aspects du financement de la santé: la disponibilité des ressources,l'organisation du financement de la santé, et la couverture de la protection financière. La deuxième partie qui comporte trois chapitres étudie l'évolution du système de financement de la santé dans un pays donné: la Chine. Le chapitre 3 présente l'histoire du système de financement de la santé en Chine depuis 1950. Il nous aide à comprendre les défis dans le financement de la santé suscités par la réforme économique. Le chapitre 4 porte sur une étude empirique de la répartition de la charge financière de la santé en Chine dans les années 1990. Il illustre les résultats directs de la baisse du financement public et de l'augmentation des paiements directs sur le bienêtre de la population. Le chapitre 5 présente la réforme de l'assurance maladie lancée par le gouvernement depuis la fin des années 1990. L'objectif est d'estimer l'impact de la mise en oeuvre du nouveau système rural d’assurance médical (NRMCS) sur les activités et la structure financière de ces hôpitaux. Une analyse d'impact est réalisée sur un échantillon de 24 hôpitaux dans la préfecture de Weifang, au Nord de la Chine. Nous concluons que le système d'assurance maladie permet un partage des responsabilités financières entre prestataires de services, patient consommateurs et acheteurs de services. Elle inclut à la fois les agents publics et privés dans la contribution au financement de santé, ce qui rend chaque partie plus responsable vis-À-Vis de son comportement en raison des risques qu'il doit assumer du fait de la consommation médicale.Cependant, il est nécessaire de noter que l’assurance maladie sociale n’est qu’une option parmi d’autres systèmes de financement de la santé. La mise en oeuvre de ce système exige un certain niveau de développement socio-Économique. L’assurance maladie ne conduit pas systématiquement à une meilleure performance du financement de la santé si elle n'est pas accompagnée de réformes quant au paiement au fournisseur ou au système de prestation de services. L'engagement du gouvernement et des capacités institutionnelles sont également des facteurs clés pour le bon fonctionnement du système. / It has been widely recognized that poor health is an important cause of poverty, especiallyamong the low- and middle- income countries. One of the reasons is the absence of publicfinancial protection against the medical consumption risk in these countries. This Phd dissertationis dedicated to discern the role that health insurance could play in the organization of healthfinancial protection system. The dissertation is composed of two parts. The first part discusses theproblems linking to the financing to medical consumption from a global point of view. Chapter 1brings theoretical discussions on three topics: 1) the specialties of medical consumption risks andthe difficulties in using private health insurance to manage medical consumption risks. 2) Therole of government and market in the distribution of health resources. 3) The options for theorganization of health financing system. Chapter 2 conducts a statistical comparison on theperformance of health financing systems in the countries of different social-Economic background.The discussion is carried out around three aspects of health financing: the availability of resources,the organization of health financing, and the coverage of financial protection. The second part ofthe dissertation studies the evolution of heath financing system in a specific country: China. Threechapters are assigned to this part. Chapter 3 introduces the history of Chinese health financingsystem since 1950s. It helps us to understand the challenges in health financing brought byeconomic reform. Chapter 4 carries out an empirical study on the distribution of health financingburden in China in the 1990s. It illustrates the direct results of the decline of public financing andincrease of direct payment. Chapter 5 presents health insurance reform that launched by thegovernment since the end of 1990s. An impact analysis is conducted on an original dataset of 24township hospitals in Weifang prefecture in the north of the China. The objective is to estimatethe impact of the implementation of New Rural Medical Cooperation System (NRMCS) on theactivities and financial structure of township hospitals. At last, we conclude that social healthinsurance (SHI) permits a sharing of health financial responsibilities between the service provider,the patient-Consumer, and the service purchaser. It can not only involve both public and privateagents into the collection of funds for health financing system, but also make each party moreaccountable due to the risks they bear from the result of medical consumption. Meanwhile it isnecessary to note that SHI is just one option among others to organize health financing system.The implementation of SHI requires a certain level of social-Economic development. SHI does notsystematically bring better performance on health financing if it is not accompanied by thereforms on provider payment or on service delivery system. Government commitment andinstitutional capacity are also key factors for the good function of the system.

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It has been widely recognized that poor health is an important cause of poverty, especiallyamong the low- and middle- income countries. One of the reasons is the absence of publicfinancial protection against the medical consumption risk in these countries. This Phd dissertationis dedicated to discern the role that health insurance could play in the organization of healthfinancial protection system. The dissertation is composed of two parts. The first part discusses theproblems linking to the financing to medical consumption from a global point of view. Chapter 1brings theoretical discussions on three topics: 1) the specialties of medical consumption risks andthe difficulties in using private health insurance to manage medical consumption risks. 2) Therole of government and market in the distribution of health resources. 3) The options for theorganization of health financing system. Chapter 2 conducts a statistical comparison on theperformance of health financing systems in the countries of different social-economic background.The discussion is carried out around three aspects of health financing: the availability of resources,the organization of health financing, and the coverage of financial protection. The second part ofthe dissertation studies the evolution of heath financing system in a specific country: China. Threechapters are assigned to this part. Chapter 3 introduces the history of Chinese health financingsystem since 1950s. It helps us to understand the challenges in health financing brought byeconomic reform. Chapter 4 carries out an empirical study on the distribution of health financingburden in China in the 1990s. It illustrates the direct results of the decline of public financing andincrease of direct payment. Chapter 5 presents health insurance reform that launched by thegovernment since the end of 1990s. An impact analysis is conducted on an original dataset of 24township hospitals in Weifang prefecture in the north of the China. The objective is to estimatethe impact of the implementation of New Rural Medical Cooperation System (NRMCS) on theactivities and financial structure of township hospitals. At last, we conclude that social healthinsurance (SHI) permits a sharing of health financial responsibilities between the service provider,the patient-consumer, and the service purchaser. It can not only involve both public and privateagents into the collection of funds for health financing system, but also make each party moreaccountable due to the risks they bear from the result of medical consumption. Meanwhile it isnecessary to note that SHI is just one option among others to organize health financing system.The implementation of SHI requires a certain level of social-economic development. SHI does notsystematically bring better performance on health financing if it is not accompanied by thereforms on provider payment or on service delivery system. Government commitment andinstitutional capacity are also key factors for the good function of the system.

La présente thèse explore, à travers quatre papiers, la possibilité d’étendre le régime d’assurance maladie sociale (SHI) vers la couverture santé universelle (CSU) et ce en présence d’obstacles structurels économiques.Les effets moyens de deux traitements, les deux assurances MHI et MAS, sur l’utilisation des soins de santé (consultations externes et hospitalisations) sont estimés. L’actuel régime d’assurance sociale en Tunisie (SHI), malgré l’amélioration de l’utilisation des soins de santé procurée aux groupes couverts, reste incapable d’atteindre une couverture effective de tous les membres de la population vis-à-vis des services de soins dont ils ont besoin. L’atteinte de cet objectif requière une stratégie qui cible les ‘‘arbres’’ et non la ‘‘forêt’’.Le chapitre deux contourne les principaux obstacles à l’extension de la couverture par l’assurance maladie et propose une approche originale permettant de cibler les travailleurs informels et les individus en chômage. Une étude transversale d’évaluation contingente (CV) a été menée en Tunisie se proposant d’estimer les volontés d’adhésion et les consentements à payer (WTP) pour deux régimes obligatoires présentés hypothétiquement à l’adhésion. Les résultats confirment l’hypothèse selon laquelle la proposition d’une affiliation volontaire à un régime d’assurance obligatoire serait acceptée par la majorité des non couverts et que les WTP révélés pour cette affiliation seraient substantiels. Enfin, dans le chapitre trois, on insiste sur l'’importance de prendre en compte les attitudes protestataires en évaluant la progression vers la CSU. / This thesis explores, in a four paper format, the possibility of extending social health insurance (SHI) schemes towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in presence of structural economic obstacles.The average treatment effects of two insurance schemes, MHI and MAS, on the utilization of outpatient and inpatient healthcare are estimated. The current Tunisian SHI schemes, despite improving utilization of healthcare services, are nevertheless incapable of achieving effective coverage of the whole population for needed services. Attaining the latter goal requires a strategy that targets the “trees” not the “forest”.Chapter two gets around major challenges to extending health insurance coverage and proposes an original approach by targeting informal workers and unemployed. A cross-sectional Contingent valuation (CV) study was carried out in Tunisia dealing with willingness-to-join and pay for two mandatory health and pension insurance schemes.Results support the hypotheses that the proposition of a voluntary affiliation to mandatory insurance schemes can be accepted by the majority of non-covered and that the WTP stated are substantial.Finally in chapter three we focus on methodological aspects that influence the value of the WTP. Our empirical results show that the voluntary affiliation to the formal health insurance scheme could be a step towards achieving UHC in Tunisia. Overall, we highlight the importance of taking into account protest positions for the evaluation of progress towards UHC.

Given the general poor state of health care and the devastating effect of user fee, the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) was instituted as a health financing policy with the main purpose to ensure universal access for all Nigerians. However, since NHIS became operational in 2005, only members of scheme are able to access health care both in the public and in private sectors, representing about 3% of Nigerian population. The thesis therefore examines the design and implementation policy of NHIS in Oyo state, Nigeria. Key design issues conceptual framework guides the analysis of data. The framework identifies three health interrelated financing functions namely revenue collection, risk pooling and purchasing. Data was collected from the NHIS officials, employees of the Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs) and the Health Care Providers (HCPs) using key informant interview. In addition, in-depth interview and semi structure questionnaire were used to gather data from the enrolees and the nonenrolees. Empirical findings show that NHIS is fragmented given the existence of several programmes. In addition, there is no risk pooling neither redistribution of funds in the scheme. Revenue generated through contributions from the enrolees was not sufficient to fund health care services received by the beneficiaries because of the small percentage of the Nigerian population that the scheme covers. Further findings indicate that enrolled federal civil servants have not commenced monthly contribution to the NHIS. They pay 10% as co-pay in every consultation while federal government as an employer subsidised by 90%. Majority (76.8%) of the respondents agreed that they were financially protected from catastrophic spending. However, the overall benefit package was rated moderate because of exclusion of some priority and essential health care needs. Although above half (57%) of the respondents concurred that HMOs are accessible, in the overall, (47.6%) of the respondents were not satisfied with their services. In the case of the HCPs, majority (61.9%) of the respondents claimed that there is no excessive waiting time for consultation. Furthermore, (64.3%) rated their interpersonal relationship with the HCPs to be good. However, more than half of the respondents (54%) disagreed on availability of prescribed drugs in NHIS accredited health facilities. For the nonenrolees, findings show that most of the respondents (72.9%) were willing to enrol, but significant proportion (47.5%) indicated financial constraint as impediment to enrolment. / Sociology / D. Phil. (Sociology)