• Community-based health financing schemes

Community-based health financing schemes

This PHRplus document aims to answer basic questions about community-based health financing (CBHF) that might be posed by policymakers and technical assistance providers. The report outlines how schemes are set up and how they operate, and provides an overview of their advantages and limitations. Topic areas covered include how CBHF schemes can: contribute to better health, improve access to financing, benefit people living with HIV/AIDS, and expand popular participation in the health sector.

The final section of the report links CBHF to broader health systems issues. The authors argue that the primary advantage of CBHF schemes is that they provide a means to pool risks for otherwise hard-to-reach populations outside of formal sector employment. Moreover, these schemes can be a part of national healthcare financing systems, as they can help meet some of the needs of rural “middle class” and workers in the informal sector while complementary financing strategies can address the needs of other groups. However, due to the limited evidence base, it is unclear if CBHF schemes contribute to overall system equity, even if they do succeed in providing coverage to poorer people within their communities. [adapted from author].

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