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Weaknesses in social protection and risk management systems within workplaces and in the wider public health environment and weak investment in health insurance and health services shift a significant share of the burden of production risks onto worker communities and under-funded public services. Inequality has been constructed by powerful economic and political interests and by weak policies for channelling the benefits of globalization to those most in need. Powerful drivers of inequity are not simply addressed through technical interventions—they demand political and economic action. This paper explores the knowledge and evidence needed to impact public policy and the approaches to building political momentum for that knowledge to be used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the discursive frames utilised by several national American Muslim organisations to craft an "Islamic" argument for healthcare reform via an expansion of health insurance coverage in the United States with Islamic ethico-legal opinions (fatwas) of U.S.-based jurists regarding the permissibility of purchasing health insurance. I analyse the differing ways in which these producers of "Islamic bioethics" material ground their arguments and draw on vocabulary from other discourses. The paper closes by reflecting upon the socio-political undercurrents that may contribute to the differences and disconnections between the ways in which these bioethics stakeholders produce their outputs and by arguing that further developing the field of Islamic bioethics will require concerted multidisciplinary engagements that clarify the distinctive nature of Islamic norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Significant changes in the field of Azerbaijan's healthcare legislation came just at the time when the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic broke out in the world. The end of 2019 was supposed to lay the groundwork for the introduction of the country's long-awaited health insurance - a landmark change in terms of national healthcare transformation; although the Law 'On health insurance' was adopted in the 1990s, its implementation was per se frozen for many years due to various reasons. Therefore, the pandemic complicated the process even more. It also coincided with significant updates of the Law 'On human organs and tissues donation and transplantation', which comes into force in 2022, and legislation related to disability. Thus, this paper focuses on recent changes in healthcare legislation; analyses system of health insurance, updated transplantation and disability laws. It gives an overview of the developments that accompany the process of legislation transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People respond in different manners to various injuries or illnesses. Factors that influence response to illness or injuries are usually categorized into enabling factors, pre-disposing factors and perceived factors. These responses are self-treatment, seeking healthcare services from professional healthcare providers (private, public and mission healthcare facilities), seeking treatment from traditional healers and not seeking treatment at all. Despite an increase in the utilization rate of healthcare facilities, there is still a high prevalence of self-treatment among households in Kenya. This article, therefore, aims to examine the factors that influence household's choice of the healthcare provider by making use of national household survey data subjected to multinomial probit regression analysis. The article evidences that severity of illness, wealth, health insurance, distance, employment status, education as well as place of residence influences household's choice of healthcare provider. This implies that government should institute policies aimed at creating employment opportunities, promoting education, construction of additional healthcare facilities and encouraging more households to have health insurance covers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the right to health care. Various expressions of this right may be distinguished. These include both individual rights and social rights which could be based upon international treaties and constitutional rights. They may be found in national health legislation and, in some cases, in jurisprudence. To analyze the consequences of limiting the right to health care, a framework for judicial review has been developed which encompasses these expressions of the right to health care. The framework was used to examine legal and health policy developments in three Western and two Eastern European countries. In Italy and the Netherlands the right to health care is protected constitutionally (but on differing legal bases) while the United Kingdom does not have a written constitution. In contrast, Hungary and Poland have for many years seen the state take responsible for the provision, administration and allocation of health care services and the right to health care was guaranteed theoretically but not in practice because of the lack of (financial) means. However, the Polish Constitution explicitly anticipates possible limitations of the right to health care. What all these countries have in common is a cost containment perspective where the future will bring even tighter limits on what resources patients may consume. Despite differences in legal structure between these countries, where they seem to converge is on the consequences of putting limitations on the right to health care. The courts in Italy, the Netherlands and the UK have formulated conditions drawn from the acceptance that this right has to be judged within the context of limited resources. It may be concluded that finding a compromise between the right to health care and cost containment policies could also be an issue, Eastern European countries will have to face in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, both theoretical and empirical research has accumulated in development economics literature regarding household behavior in response to shocks in developing countries. The literature especially has explored deeply the impact of weather-related shocks--such as droughts and floods--and the efficiency of informal mechanisms to cope with these shocks. In sharp contrast, our knowledge on the economics of health shocks in low-income developing countries is rather limited. A few studies have documented that low incomes and poor health insurance coverage account for catastrophic medical expenditures in the event of a health shock. This study uses a combination of Ghanaian household survey datasets to examine the different coping mechanisms employed by uninsured households to protect themselves from the incidence of health shocks. In addition, it explores the impact of formal health insurance (the National Health Insurance Scheme) on households' out-ofpocket spending and catastrophic health expenditures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With its decision in the Hobby Lobby case, the us Supreme Court adjudicated over the "Contraceptive Mandate", a regulation of the Healthcare Reform that aroused religious concerns as it requires companies offering health insurance to its employees to cover contraceptives. Recognizing for the first time that private companies are (legal) "persons" exercising religion, the Court declared that the Mandate violates their religious freedom and exempted them from covering contraceptives. The article argues that the restrictive interpretation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (rfra) here proposed, by granting strong protection to corporations' religious claims over their employees' interest in equal access to health care, may lead to the proliferation of religious accommodations far beyond this controversy. Yet, the article concludes that this dangerous scenario can be limited by taking into consideration the impact of religious accommodations on third parties' rights, as imposed by an interpretation of rfra consistent with the Establishment Clause. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informed by the debates on the transformation of welfare states in advanced industrial economies, this article evaluates the changing role of the state in welfare provision in Turkey. Turkey's welfare state has long been limited and inegalitarian. Strong family ties coupled with indirect and informal channels of welfare (ranging from agricultural subsidies to informal housing—both costly but politically expedient) have compensated for the welfare vacuum. At first glance, Turkey's welfare reform that emerged from the 2000-2001 fiscal crisis appears like a classic case of moving towards a minimalist, 'neoliberal' welfare regime—with increasingly privatized health care and private social insurance. The state retreats via the subcontracting of welfare provision to private actors, growing involvement of charity organizations, and increasing public-private cooperation in education, health, and anti-poverty schemes. Yet, there is also evidence of the expansion of state power. The newly empowered 'General Directorate of Social Assistance and Solidarity (SYDGM)' manages an ever-increasing budget for social assistance, the number of mean-tested health insurance (Green Card) holders explodes, health care expenditures rise substantially, and municipalities become important liaisons for channeling private money and donations for antipoverty purposes. The cumulative effect is an 'institutional welfare-mix' that has actually mutated so as to compensate for the absence of the earlier, politically attractive but fiscally unsustainable welfare conduits. The result has so far been the creation of immense room for political patronage, the expansion of state power, and no significant improvement of welfare governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Appeals to personal responsibility for health are controversial in many countries, especially in those that have publicly funded healthcare systems. In Germany, personal responsibility has traditionally been a focal point in the statutory health-insurance scheme. The most recent healthcare reform under the motto 'prevention before treatment, rehabilitation, and long-term care' came into force on 1 April 2007 through the Gesetz zur Stärkung des Wettbewerbs in der gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung (GKV-WSG--"Law to strengthen competition among providers of statutory health-insurance scheme"). In significant parts, the law has given further emphasis to the role of personal responsibility. Implications of three important changes are discussed: (1) insured persons may no longer claim free treatment for complications arising from certain 'lifestyle choices'; (2) chronically ill and cancer patients face more stringent compliance requirements or face higher co-payments; and (3) insured persons may cash 'no-claim bonuses' if over at least one year they do not require hospitalisation or prescription medicines. Previous emphasis on personal responsibility has had relatively broad support in Germany. The long-term acceptability of the new measures will depend on several factors, including the structural and financial impact on different providers of statutory health insurance, and the capacities and opportunities of different groups in society to make use of the new provisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the implication of the decentralization of the health care system and territorial medical insurance coverage in Russia. Crises of the health care system; Health care regulation; Territorial insurance coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A close inspection of approved and pending state waiver programs suggests that the expansion of Medicaid provides a new means of social control over the poor and uninsured. Changes in the structure and financing of state Medicaid programs, like work requirements and time limits on eligibility, limit the appeal of publicly funded medical insurance. In addition, the social construction of the target population legitimizes the unposition of restrictive health care arrangements for poor women that would be politically indefensible if applied to the general population or to "deserving" subgroups with the population (e.g., retirees). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]