Low- and middle-income countries face major challenges to their health systems. These include a high burden of communicable disease and an emerging non-communicable disease burden. This work deals with the elements of health care financing, focusing on middle- and low-income settings.

List of Contributors. Overview. The double burden of disease in developing countries: The Mexican experience. Protecting pro-poor health services during financial crises: Lessons from experience. The equity impact of the universal coverage policy: Lessons from Thailand. Social health insurance and labor market outcomes: Evidence from Central and Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. Trust in the context of community-based health insurance schemes in Cambodia: Villagers’ trust in health insurers. Methodological challenges in evaluating health care financing equity in data-poor contexts: Lessons from Ghana, South Africa and Tanzania. The role of risk equalization in moving from voluntary private health insurance to mandatory coverage: the experience in South Africa. Purchasing health care in China: Experiences, Opportunities and challenges. The impact of Nepal's national incentive programme to promote safe delivery in the district of Makwanpur. Service- and population-based exemptions: Are these the way forward for equity and efficiency in health financing in low-income countries?. From scheme to system: social health insurance funds and the transformation of health financing in Kyrgyzstan and Moldova. Reforming “developing” health systems: Tanzania, Mexico, and the United States. Advances in health economics and health services research. Innovations in health system finance in developing and transitional economies. Copyright page.