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Social Protection and Health: Experiences in Uganda
Author(s) -
Yates Jenny,
Cooper Ros,
Holland Jeremy
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
development policy review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.671
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1467-7679
pISSN - 0950-6764
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-7679.2006.00328.x
Subject(s) - public economics , poverty , government (linguistics) , social protection , health policy , social policy , intervention (counseling) , poverty reduction , business , health sector , social determinants of health , social welfare , economic growth , economics , political science , health services , health care , environmental health , medicine , population , law , linguistics , philosophy , psychiatry
There is an interesting and continuing debate on the nature and role of social protection in poverty reduction. Within the health sector, discussion has focussed on the drawbacks associated with fee exemption schemes and community‐based health insurance, with much less attention paid to the policy option of abolishing user fees. This paper reviews empirical evidence on the impact of the Government of Uganda's decision in 2001 to abolish user fees for health services. The paper finds that this policy intervention has had a significant positive impact on health‐seeking behaviour in Uganda and concludes that this policy measure can make an important contribution towards a more ‘promotional’ policy approach to social protection.