Summary |
This volume presents findings of a World Bank review of the existing and potential role of private voluntary health insurance in low-and middle-income countries and is the third volume in a series of reviews of health care financing. One volume in the series, health financing for poor people: Resource mobilization and risk sharing, presents findings of a World Bank review of the role of community financing schemes in rural areas and inner-city slums. It reports that these schemes contribute to financial protection against illness and increase low-income rural and informal sector workers’ access to health care. However, the schemes mobilize few resources from poor communities, frequently exclude the poorest of the poor without some form of subsidy, have a small risk pool, possess limited management capacity, and cannot offer the more comprehensive benefits often available through more formal health financing mechanisms and provider networks. Many of these observations hold true for private voluntary health insurance.
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