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Cost recovery in the health‐care sector in Sub‐Saharan Africa
Author(s) -
Vogel Ronald J.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
the international journal of health planning and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.672
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1099-1751
pISSN - 0749-6753
DOI - 10.1002/hpm.4740060303
Subject(s) - equity (law) , health care , business , context (archaeology) , christian ministry , government (linguistics) , public sector , public economics , set (abstract data type) , schedule , economics , economic growth , computer science , political science , management , paleontology , linguistics , philosophy , economy , law , biology , programming language
Cost recovery, or the pricing of health‐care services in government‐run health‐care facilities, continues to be a politically delicate subject in Sub‐Saharan Africa. Nevertheless, ministries of health are now beginning to understand that the selective pricing of healthcare services can be a powerful tool for achieving the efficiency and equity goals that their governments have set, and for increasing ministry financial resources that can be used to improve the quality of care offered. This article provides a blue‐print for these nascent cost‐recovery efforts. After a consideration of the rationale for cost recovery within a theoretical context, a set of pricing principles for the whole public health sector is presented and a prototypical systemic price schedule is derived from the principles. Constraints to effective and equitable cost recovery are then discussed, and topics for further empirical research are suggested.