Publication

This report reviews health care financing in low- and middle-income countries as it relates to three main functions: revenue collection, pooling of funds and purchasing. It identifies the main mechanisms of health care financing, assesses basic features of different financing mechanisms and comments in detail on the key functions of health care financing. Furthermore, it explains how Costa Rica and Sri Lanka have been successful in setting up and implementing these key functions. The author argues that every effort should be made to achieve universal health care coverage by a prepayment financing mechanism.