Adequate health financing is a critical element of any strong healthcare system. In Sub-Saharan Africa, financing and payment models for primary, secondary, and tertiary health care can be significant tools for improving issues of access, quality, and equity in care delivery. While much effort is made to understand the financing approaches that may be optimal for health systems at large, little is known about financing mechanisms that may work best considering the dominance of out-of-pocket payment and, more importantly, the impact that unexpected, informal costs for care may have on health-seeking behaviour. The abolition of user fees for public health facilities has become increasingly popular in many low-income countries, with results from numerous studies noting an increase in access and utilization for the poorest populations. However, abolishing user fees often does not remove the cost of many goods and services related to a care episode. Though some patients may pay no initial fees for a basic service such as an initial consultation, there are often treatment-related costs that are unknown to the patient.
September 19, 2019
Payment Patterns in Nigeria’s Public Facilities: Unexpected costs and implications for health-seeking behavior in Nigeria
Related
Nigeria Economic Update (Issue 44)
Latest
Doing Business report by the World Bank ranks Nigeria as one of the top 10 economies
that showed notable improvements in doing business in 2016/2017. Precisely, the
report which presents quantitative indicators on business regulation compared
across 190 economies and ranked Nigeria 145th - up by 24 positions from
the previous report ranking, to reach its highest rank since 2013. This may not
be unexpected, given that it is consequent upon various business environment
reforms in 2016. Particularly, the Presidential Enabling Business Environment
Council (PEBEC) set up in 2016 enacted 31 reforms to improve
business(such as improving credit to small and medium-size
businesses) all of were enacted into law in May 2017.
Gross Domestic Product Growth Rate And Contribution To GDP (ITC)
Gross Domestic Product Growth Rate: The information and communication sector has grown overtime but witnessed an unusual decline in 2011, which has remained low in 2016Q1 possibly due to declining con