Economic Analysis of Community Financing Schemes

Abstract

Various ways of financing health care expenditures by communities are studied in this chapter. The first method is direct payments by patients for drugs. Application of this method presupposes that other health care expenditures are financed by other agents such as international donors and central, district or local government. A fee-for-service arrangement constitutes the second method. This is more general in that fees may cover other recurrent expenditures as well as drug expenditures. Salaries of health personnel and depreciation allowances may also be included in a fee-for service system. The third method consists of prepayments for health care or decentralized forms of health insurance. Finally, we consider community labour as a means of financing health expenditures. In the last section, evaluation criteria for projects in community financing are examined.