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Global Health Cluster Position Paper: Removing User Fees for Primary Healthcare Services during Humanitarian Crises

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2012

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Extract

This paper, produced by the Global Health Cluster, provides guidance to policy-makers and other health actors for the removal of user fees for the provision of primary healthcare (PHC) services during humanitarian crises. Reflecting international consensus, it provides guidance for humanitarian agencies for reducing the financial barriers to access to PHC services by removing user fees and the risks imposed by user fees, i.e., catastrophic health expenditures. It is based on the humanitarian principle of impartiality and on human rights, which state that humanitarian interventions should be provided “based on needs alone”, be accessible without discrimination, and be affordable for all. Therefore, humanitarian aid must not introduce or support a financing . mechanism for which sufficient evidence exists that indicates that it has negative effects on access to PHC for the most vulnerable and excluded groups.

Type
Special Report
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 25 , Issue 4 , August 2010 , pp. 374 - 376
Copyright
Copyright © World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 2010

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References

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