Private Health Sector Growth in Asia Issues and Implications

At the end of the twentieth century, Asia is in the middle of an economic, political, and social transformation. Many countries are poised to enter the next century on a rising curve of rapid economic growth and human resource development. Despite an increasing proportion of national income devoted to health, government resources are not sufficient to maintain existing health systems, meet increased demand, and improve the quality of care. Attitudes about the role of government in financing health care services have also changed. As a result, many countries in Asia have adopted a strategy of encouraging the expansion of the private health sector in health. This book describes these policy shifts and the health sector reform issues in the countries of the region. The actual process of change in six countries: India; Indonesia; Korea; the Philippines; Thailand; and Vietnam is also documented. This collection of papers, by eleven leading international experts, was prepared for the Asian Development Bank?s Second Regional Conference on Health Sector Reform: Issues Related to Private Sector Growth, held in Manila in 1996. Management Sciences for Health commissioned these papers and managed the conference for the ADB. The ADB is a regional multilateral development bank with 58 member countries which provided development assistance through loans and grants to 36 countries in Asia and the Pacific. Management Sciences for Health is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping health care policy makers and managers develop and implement practical strategies to meet the challenges faced by the public and private sectors of health systems.