Charging for health services in the Third World

Abstract

Moves towards a greater degree of charging for the use of health services in developing countries are the result of two main factors: (a) the collapse of government funding for health programmes, partly instigated by the fall in commodity prices and the burden of debt repayment; and (b) the general trend towards privatisation. Restraints on government spending, especially on social programmes, have been reinforced by loan conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.