Int J Health Serv
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China and Vietnam have adopted market reforms in the health sector in the context of market economic reforms. Vietnam has developed a large private health sector, while in China commercialization has occurred mainly in the formal public sector, where user fees are now the main source of facility finance. As a result, the integrity of China's planned health service has been disrupted, especially in poor rural areas. ⋯ This has particularly affected the rural poor, deterring them from accessing health care. Assistance for the poor to meet public-sector user fees is more beneficial and widespread in Vietnam than China. China is now criticizing the degree of commercialization of its health system and considers its health reforms "basically unsuccessful." Market reforms that stimulate growth in the economy are not appropriate to reform of social sectors such as health.
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This article explains the paradox of China's recent failure to secure significant improvements in the health of its people despite once being the envy of the developing world for its successful health policies and its huge sustained increases in both economic growth and expenditure on health care. The authors begin with an outline of the organization and financing of China's health services, then track the recent upward trend in health spending and examine its structural features in conjunction with those of spending in other, comparable countries. ⋯ The authors conclude with some policy proposals centering on the restoration of social justice in the health system. The article draws on material previously unavailable in English.
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The World Health Organization faces allegations that it attempted to secure a $10,000 donation from a pharmaceutical company by asking a patients' group to act as a covert channel for the funds, an arrangement that would break the WHO's own rules on accepting money from the pharmaceutical industry. The WHO denies attempts to bend its donation rules.
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Jeffrey Sachs's The End of Poverty is a manifesto and how-to guide on ending extreme poverty around the world; it promotes the U. N. ⋯ Sachs later became more prominent as a critic of development orthodoxy, and was economic advisor to the Jubilee 2000 movement. The End of Poverty is full of sharp critiques of Western imperialism, but his views on the rest of the development business are more conventional.
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Is poverty more damaging to health in Britain than in Sweden, and if so, why? Following previous research by the authors that suggested such an effect, a new comparative study is examining whether there are aspects of the social and policy context in Britain that add to and reinforce the health-damaging experience of being poor. Conversely, are there other aspects of living in Sweden that are supportive for people in poverty, which make the experience of poverty less stressful and health-damaging? Stemming from this ongoing study, the aim of this article is to present a framework for understanding the context in which social welfare policies are formed and operate in Britain and Sweden. It then uses the framework to consider the "upstream" influences of ideology, culture, and values on policy development in the two countries and what these developments might mean for the health and well-being of people facing financial adversity in the two societies.