A collection of peer-reviewed articles and contributions to books, this overview of the finance of health insurance concentrates on developing countries. The material covers various financing strategies and explains how each can - or cannot - help improve the transition toward universal coverage. The model plans shown here are particularly useful for policy-makers and technical advisers who have to decide upon health financing policies - or are engaged in a debate about them - and the sample forms can be adjusted to the particular economic and political context of the developing countries involved. In addition, there are reminders that this process varies: in some countries, universal coverage may take time and require a step-by-step approach. In other developing countries, a swift transition to universal coverage may be quite feasible.





Guy Carrin is a professor of health economics at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. He is a former Takemi Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health and an former adjunct professor of public health at Boston University. He also has served as a senior health economist at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.