Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T09:58:36.807Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Introduction: Overview and purpose

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2010

Jean-Pierre Unger
Affiliation:
Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp
Pierre De Paepe
Affiliation:
Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp
Kasturi Sen
Affiliation:
Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp
Werner Soors
Affiliation:
Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp
Get access

Summary

Confident in the infinity of time, a certain conception of history discerns only the rhythm, faster or slower, at which men and times move along the path of progress.

Walter Benjamin, 1915. La vie des étudiants. In: W. Benjamin, Œuvres I, Folio Essais, Editions Gallimard, 2000, p. 125.

Plato was the first to discern between those who know without acting and those who act without knowing while in the past, action was divided in enterprise and achievement: the result was that the knowledge of action to accomplish and its implementation became two radically different concepts.

H. Arendt. Condition de l'homme moderne. Calmann Levy Ed., Paris, 1983, p. 286.

After 15 years of neoliberal international health policy, data from 26 sub-Saharan countries reveals that more than 50% of the poorest children receive no health care when sick (Marek et al., 2005). Data from 44 low- to middle-income countries (LMICs) suggest that the greater the participation of the private sector in primary health care (PHC), the higher the exclusion from treatment and care (Macintosh & Koivusalo, 2005) across sectors.

This is a textbook about public health with a difference. Firstly, it addresses policies relating to the delivery of health care – while the study of public health has historically evolved around issues of disease control. This book makes a case for alternative policies that could shape the structure and provision of universally accessible, polyvalent, discretionary health care, rather than making it work through its commodification and the priorities of cost-effective interventions in public services.

Type
Chapter
Information
International Health and Aid Policies
The Need for Alternatives
, pp. xxv - xxxviii
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

,Action for Global Health. (2009). Back to Basics: Primary Health Care Renewal at the 62nd World Health Assembly. http://www.actionforglobalhealth.eu/news/back_to_basics_primary_health_care_renewal_at_the_62nd_world_health_assembly.
Asiimwe, D. & Lule, J. C. (1992). The Public Private Mix in Financing and Provision of Health Services in Uganda. 1992. Kampala, Uganda: Makarere Institute of Social Research. Research paper Makerere Institute of Social Research.Google Scholar
Baru, R. V. (1998). Private Health Care in India: Social Characteristics and Trends. New Delhi: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Behague, D. P. & Storeng, K. T. (2008). Collapsing the vertical-horizontal divide: An ethnographic study of evidence-based policymaking in maternal health. American Journal of Public Health, 98(4), pp. 644–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bhat, R. (1999). Characteristics of private medical practice in India: A provider perspective. Health Policy and Planning, 14(1), pp. 26–37.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blam, I. & Kovalev, S. (2005).On Shadow Commercialization of Health Care in Russia. In Commercialization of Health Care: Global and Local Dynamics and Policy Responses. Hampshire, UK: Macmillan Publishers Limited, pp. 117–35.Google Scholar
Buckley, R. P. & Baker, J. (2008). IMF policies and health in sub-Saharan Africa. http://austlii.law.uts.edu.au/au/journals/UNSWLRS/2008/14.html.
Cairncross, S., Periés, H., & Cutts, F. (1997). Vertical health programmes. Lancet, 349(Supplement III), pp. 20–2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chan, M. (2008). Return to Alma-Ata. Lancet, 372(9642), pp. 865–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
,Christian Aid. (2004). The Politics of Poverty – Aid in the New Cold War. London, UK: Christian Aid.Google Scholar
Drache, D. & Sullivan, T. (1999). Health Reform. Public Success, Private Failure. London, UK: Routledge / Taylor & Francis Group.Google Scholar
,Economic Governance for Health. (2009). Economic Governance for Health Newsletter 5, 10th May 09. http://www.eg4health.org/2009/05/11/1052/#more-1052.
,European Commission. (2004). European Competitiveness Report. Brussels: European Commission.Google Scholar
Evans, R. G. (1997). Going for the gold: The redistributive agenda behind market-based health care reform. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 22(2), pp. 427–65.Google Scholar
,Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2009). The State of Food Insecurity in the World: Economic Crisis – Impacts and Lessons Learned. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Giusti, D., Criel, B., & Béthune, X. (1997). Viewpoint: Public versus private health care delivery: Beyond the slogans. Health Policy and Planning, 12(3), pp. 192–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Himmelstein, D. U., Woolhandler, S., & Hellander, I. (2001). Bleeding The Patient: The Consequences of Corporate Health Care. Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press.Google Scholar
Hozumi, D., Frost, L., Suraratdecha, C., Pratt, B.A., Sezgin, Y., Reichenback, L., & Reich, M. (2008). The role of the private sector in health: A landscape analysis of global players' attitudes toward the private sector in health systems and levers that influence these attitudes. Washington, DC: Results for Development Institute.Google Scholar
Kessler, T. (2003). Review of 2004 World Development Report. Critical Analysis of the WDR 2004. Silver Spring, MD: Results for Development Institute.Google Scholar
Lagomarsino, G., Nachuk, S., & Singh Kundra, S. (2009). Public Stewardship of Private Providers in Mixed Health Systems. Synthesis from the Rockefeller Foundation. Washington, DC: Results for Development Institute.Google Scholar
Maarse, H. (2006). The privatization of health care in Europe: An eight-country analysis. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 31(5), pp. 981–1014.Google Scholar
Macintosh, M. & Koivusalo, M. (2005). Commercialization of Health Care: Global and Local Dynamics and Policy Responses. Hampshire, UK: Macmillan Publishers Limited.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marek, T., O'Farrell, C., Yamamoto, C., & Zable, I. (2005). Trends and Opportunities in Public–Private Partnerships to Improve Health Service Delivery in Africa. World Bank. Africa Region Human Development Working Paper Series.Google Scholar
Marriott, A. (2009). Blind Optimism: Challenging the Myths About Private Health Care in Poor Countries. Oxford, UK: Oxfam International.Google Scholar
Moszynski, P. (2009). Health care in poor countries must be defended against privatisation, Oxfam says. British Medical Journal, 339, b2737.Google Scholar
Muntaner, C. & Chung, H. J. (2008). Macrosocial determinants, epidemiology, and health policy: Should politics and economics be banned from social determinants of health research?Journal of Public Health Policy, 29(3), pp. 299–306.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Newbrander, W. & Rosenthal, G. (1997). Quality of care issues in health sector reform. In Private Health Sector Growth in Asia, Issues and Implications. New York: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 177–217.Google Scholar
,OECD. (2008). Development Co-operation Report 2007. Chapter Three: Aid Effectiveness Implementing the Paris Principles. Development Co-operation Report. Paris: OECD, p. 53.Google Scholar
,Pan American Health Organization. (2003). Primary Health Care in the Americas: Lessons Learned over 25 Years and Future Challenges. Washington, DC: World Health Organization.Google Scholar
Pollock, A. M. & Price, D. (2000). Rewriting the regulations: How the World Trade Organisation could accelerate privatisation in health care systems. Lancet, 356(9246), pp. 1995–2000.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sen, K. (2003). Restructuring Health Services: Changing Contexts and Comparative Perspectives. London, UK: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Shiffman, J. (2008). Has donor prioritization of HIV/AIDS displaced aid for other health issues. Health Policy and Planning, 23(2), pp. 95–100.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Unger, J. P., Dessel, P., Sen, K., & Paepe, P. (2009). International health policy and stagnating maternal mortality: Is there a causal link?Reproductive Health Matters, 17(33), pp. 91–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitfield, D. (2001). Public Services or Corporate Welfare. Rethinking the Nation State in the Global Economy. London, UK: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
,World Bank. (2004). World Development Report 2004: Making Services Work for Poor People. Washington, DC: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
,World Health Organization. (2000). World Health Report 2000: Health Systems. Improving Performance. Geneva: World Health Organization.Google Scholar
,World Health Organization. (2008). The World Health Report 2008 Primary Health Care – Now More Than Ever. Geneva: World Health Organization.Google Scholar
,World Health Organization. (2009). WHO Statistical Information System (WHOSIS). 2009.
Yesudian, C. A. K. (1994). Behaviour of the private sector in the health market of Bombay. Health Policy and Planning, 9(1), pp. 72–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×