Making Health Insurance Pro-poor: Lessons from 20 Developing Countries

The last 20 years have seen a substantial growth in research on the extent to which health sector reforms are pro-poor or pro-rich. What has been missing is knowledge synthesis work to derive operational lessons from the empirical research. This article fills the gap for the most popular form of health financing reform, health insurance. Based on publications covering 20 developing countries, we find that health insurance is no panacea for improving equity in the health sector. More importantly, we find certain design elements of health insurance can increase the likelihood of tackling inequality in the health sector in developing countries.

Automated summary

Research on the impact of health sector reforms on the poor and rich has grown over the past 20 years, but there is a lack of knowledge synthesis work. Health insurance is not a perfect solution to improving equity in the health sector, but certain design elements can increase the likelihood of addressing inequality in developing countries.