Research suggests that when user fees are accompanied by improved quality, use of modern health care facilities doesn't fall off. Price alone doesn't dictate peoples' health care choices. Distance to facilities, personal characteristics and quality of care all play a role. By sending price signals to consumers, user fees can actually improve the referral network and the efficiency and quality of the health care system. Insurance Pessimism regarding prospects for self-financing insurance in the region is giving way to new optimism, the report says.
All African countries offer opportunities for self-financing insurance to grow.
Prospects for self-financing insurance are particularly strong in urban areas, where more people are formally employed. Health services can't be privatized without some kind of self-financing insurance to protect large numbers of people from catastrophic illnesses. Uganda Boosts Health Care Health care is poor for Uganda's 17.5 million people. Their life expectancy at birth is only 47 years, and a recent survey showed almost half the children under five to be underweight. Now Uganda, as part of its promising on-going reform effort, is moving to boost its health care, in part by giving district governments more control over the system.