Jens Holst / Assia Brandrup-Lukanow (eds.)

The provision of social protection systems in health which adequately respond to the needs of citizens while keeping within the bounds of available resources is a challenge for every country and every government. Resource-poor nations are in a particularly difficult situation as the scarce resources available have to be shared among many priority areas of development.

At the same time, this is the area where the needs are greatest, often exacerbated by high population growth rates and epidemics such as AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria affecting large segments of the populations. Chronically high maternal and infantmortality rates, and the growing burden of non-communicable diseases place an additional strain on health care systems.

Many countries, along with their development partners, have worked on different national or regional models of sustainable health care financing. The International Conference on Social Health Insurance in Developing Countries, held in Berlin 5-7 December 2005, provided a forum in which the experiences from different countries andregions could be shared and discussed.

An international conference held in Berlin in December 2005 intended to collect and preserve the many valuable experiences and contributions that had emerged and to make them available to a broader group of scientists, politicians and decision-makers. This book comprises a revised version of most of the presentations made in Berlin as well as background information on social protection in health. The editors hope this compilation will help to enrich the ongoing debate on how best to protect people in developing countries against the financial risks of ill health.

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