Health care reform in the United States

Improving access to necessary drugs requires attention to all four component parts of the access equation ensuring rational selection, providing sustainable financing and efficient systems to distribute and use the drugs and making sure that prices are affordable. However, comparing drugs prices across countries and health systems is not always easy. Methodological pitfalls abound, and have in the past ensnared the South African Ministry of Health. The National Drug Policy contains a variety of proposed strategies to reduce the price of medicines in South Africa. This chapter considers the complex issue of drug pricing, the policy options outlined and available, and provides recommendations on steps that will advance the implementation of such policies.

Report of consulative meetings with Provincial Department of Health regarding a proposal for a sustained, multi-site initiative aimed at supporting health sector development at local level.

Technical Report to Chapter 13 of the 1998 SA Health Review

If the principal aim of the public health sector is to improve the health of South Africans, then our focus must be the health of rural people. In other words, the reform efforts and upheavals which have left the South African health system creaking and groaning in protest must continue until it is turned on its head - and is explicitly biased towards rural health. Rural people bear the greatest burden of disease, mainly because rural people bear the greatest burden of poverty. But paradoxically, urban dwellers are better served by both public and private health care resources. Simply put, rural people are generally poorer and less healthy -and have less access to health care.

An easy-to-read overview of the district health system aimed at everyone in the district health team. This Pocket Guide to District Health Care in South Africa is aimed especially at you as a member of the district health team - whether you work in a government facility, or a non-government organisation, or the private sector. But everyone is welcome to read it!