This paper by the AIDS Law Project calls for measures to address inequity in access to private health care services and to regulate costs in the private sector. For this reason regular and accurate information about health financing, service prices and business practices in the private sector is essential in determining both health policy as well as a fair and reasonable price for services and products.
Public-Private Mix
Submission on the national health reference price list
AIDS Law Project, 27 February 2007
Public-Private Mix for DOTS Expansion (PPM DOTS)
World Health Organisation
In many countries, private health care providers are the gateway to health services for people with symptoms of TB. The types of private providers and their roles in TB management, however, vary greatly across and within countries. The traditional healers in Malawi, unqualified practitioners in India or hospital-based chest physicians in Indonesia are all, for example, private health care providers in their respective settings with current and potential roles in TB control.
Public-private partnerships to build human capacity in low income countries: findings from the Pfizer program
Vian T, Richards SC, McCoy K, Connelly P, Feeley F: Human Resources for Health 5:8, 2 March 2007
The ability of health organizations in developing countries to expand access to quality services depends in large part on organisational and human capacity. Capacity building includes professional development of staff, as well as efforts to create working environments conducive to high levels of performance. The current study evaluated an approach to public-private partnership where corporate volunteers give technical assistance to improve organizational and staff performance. From 2003 to 2005, the Pfizer Global Health Fellows program sent 72 employees to work with organizations in 19 countries. This evaluation was designed to assess program impact.
Use of over-the-counter malaria medicines in children and adults in three districts in Kenya: implications for private medicine retailer interventions
Abuya TO , Mutemi W, Karisa B, Ochola SA, Fegan G, Marsh V: Malaria Journal 6:57, 10 May 2007
Global malaria control strategies highlight the need to increase early uptake of effective antimalarials for childhood fevers in endemic settings, based on a presumptive diagnosis of malaria in this age group. Many control programmes identify private medicine sellers as important targets to promote effective early treatment, based on reported widespread inadequate childhood fever treatment practices involving the retail sector. Data on adult use of over-the-counter (OTC) medicines is limited. This study aimed to assess childhood and adult patterns of OTC medicine use to inform national medicine retailer programmes in Kenya and other similar settings.
HIV antiretroviral therapy: can franchising expand coverage?
id21 Health News, 20 October 2006
Between 6.5 and 11 million people are in need of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in developing countries. Only 1.3 million are receiving it. With the public sector struggling to expand coverage, how can the private sector play a more significant role? This paper reviews the experiences of franchising and its potential for HIV and AIDS services.
Privatising basic utilities in Sub-Saharan Africa: The MDG impact
Bayliss K, McKinley T: International Poverty Centre (IPC), January 2007
This policy research brief draws on the findings of a UNDP-supported book, Privatization and Alternative Public Sector Reform in Sub-Saharan Africa (Bayliss and Fine, forthcoming), to analyse the effects of privatisation on the delivery of water and electricity. Its chief conclusion? Privatisation has been a widespread failure. This has hampered progress on the MDGs for both water and sanitation, and on many other MDGs dependent on energy. Privatisation has failed on several counts. Contrary to expectations, private investors have shied away from investing in such utilities in the region. So it has been costly for governments to motivate them to invest. Moreover, the focus of investors on cost recovery has not promoted social objectives, such as reducing poverty and promoting equity. Thus, current realities dictate refocusing on building up the capacity of the public sector. It continues to dominate the provision of water and electricity, and will do so for the foreseeable future. But a dramatic scaling up of both external and domestic resources will be needed to finance more extensive public investment in these sectors. This approach is consistent with the current priority of adopting more ambitious MDG-based development strategies in the region.
Public-private partnerships to build human capacity in low income countries: findings from the Pfizer program
Vian T, Richards SC, McCoy K, Connelly P, Feeley F: Human Resources for Health 5:8
The ability of health organizations in developing countries to expand access to quality services depends in large part on organizational and human capacity. Capacity building includes professional development of staff, as well as efforts to create working environments conducive to high levels of performance. The current study evaluated an approach to public-private partnership where corporate volunteers give technical assistance to improve organizational and staff performance. From 2003 to 2005, the Pfizer Global Health Fellows program sent 72 employees to work with organizations in 19 countries. This evaluation was designed to assess program impact.
Strengthening the Role of the Private Sector in Expanding Health Coverage in Africa
Osewe P, World Bank, November 2006
This paper describes the context of health care provision in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), analyses current mechanisms for public-private partnerships (PPP), and discusses emerging issues in strengthening partnerships to expand health coverage.
Regulating private health insurance to serve the public interest: policy issues for developing countries
Sekhri N, Savedoff W: The International journal of health planning and management 21(4): 357-392
Private health insurance plays a large and increasing role around the world. This paper reviews international experiences and shows that private health insurance is significant in countries with widely different income levels and health system structures. It contrasts trends in private health insurance expansion across regions and highlights countries with particularly important experiences of private coverage. It then discusses the regulatory approaches and policies that can structure private health insurance markets in ways that mobilize resources for health care, promote financial risk protection, protect consumers and reduce inequities. The paper argues that policy makers need to confront the role that private health insurance will play in their health systems and regulate the sector appropriately so that it serves public goals of universal coverage and equity.
Sharing the burden of TB/HIV? Costs and financing of public–private partnerships for tuberculosis treatment in South Africa
Sinanovic E, Kumaranayake L: Tropical Medicine & International Health 11(9): 1466-1474
The objective of this study was to explore the economic costs and sources of financing for different public–private partnership (PPP) arrangements to tuberculosis (TB) provision involving both workplace and non-profit private providers in South Africa. The financing required for the different models from the perspective of the provincial TB programme, provider, and the patient are considered.