Why do many basic packages of health services stay on the shelf? A look at potential reasons in the WHO South-East Asia Region.

Basic packages of health services (BPHSs) are often envisaged primarily as political statements of intent to provide access to care, in an era of commitment to universal health coverage. They are often produced with little attention paid to health systems' capacity to deliver these benefit packages or other implementation challenges. Many countries of the World Health Organization (WHO) South-East Asia Region have invested in developing BPHSs.

Pooling financial resources for universal health coverage: options for reform.

Universal health coverage (UHC) means that all people can access health services of good quality without experiencing financial hardship. Three health financing functions - revenue raising, pooling of funds and purchasing health services - are vital for UHC. This article focuses on pooling: the accumulation and management of prepaid financial resources.

Other considerations than: how much will universal health coverage cost?

Globally, countries have agreed to pursue the progressive realization of universal health coverage (UHC) and there is now a high level of political commitment to providing universal coverage of essential health services while ensuring that individuals are financially protected against high health spending. The aim of this paper is to help policy-makers think through the progressive realization of UHC. First, the pitfalls of applying global normative expenditure targets in estimating the national revenue required for UHC are discussed.

Financial protection analysis in eight countries in the WHO South-East Asia Region.

Objective: To document the financial protection status of eight countries of the South-East Asian region and to investigate the main components of out-of-pocket expenditure on health care.

Methods: We calculated two financial protection indicators using data from living standards surveys or household income and expenditure surveys in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste. First, we calculated the incidence of catastrophic health expenditure, defined as the proportion of the population spending more than 10% or 25% of their total household expenditure on health.