PLoS Medicine (Nov 2008)

Is private health care the answer to the health problems of the world's poor?

  • Kara Hanson,
  • Lucy Gilson,
  • Catherine Goodman,
  • Anne Mills,
  • Richard Smith,
  • Richard Feachem,
  • Neelam Sekhri Feachem,
  • Tracey Perez Koehlmoos,
  • Heather Kinlaw

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0050233
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 5, no. 11
p. e233

Abstract

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The global burden of disease falls disproportionately upon the world's low-income countries, which are often struggling with weak health systems. Both the public and private sector deliver health care in these countries, but the appropriate role for each of these sectors in health system strengthening remains controversial. This debate examines whether the private sector should step up its involvement in the health systems of low-income countries.