Contingent Valuation and Health Sector Reform in Developing Countries

This Thesis aims to help establish a complementary
funding mechanism for health services in the context
of the current socioeconomic crisis in the emerging
Palestinian State. It focuses on the design of
an efficient and equitable cost-recovery mechanism
for primary health care services, based on the value
of improving the quality of care from the patients
perspective. The study makes use of the contingent
valuation method to assess the value, for the
patients, of improving the quality of care, by
eliciting patients willingness to pay values for
different quality improvements. A contingent
valuation questionnaire was designed based on a
decomposed valuation scenario and the payment card
elicitation technique, with user-based financial
contributions at the point of consumption being the
payment vehicle. The elicited values were used to
inform decision-makers about the highest
extra user fee patients would be willing to pay to
benefit from specified improvements in the
quality of care.

Autorentext

Awad MATARIA is a Palestinian pharmacist, with a Masters in Health Systems Analysis and a PhD in Health Economics. He was involved in several regional projects and published in many reputed journals. His research interests include economic evaluation, equity, health care financing, National Health Accounts, and quality of life assessment.

Klappentext

This Thesis aims to help establish a complementary funding mechanism for health services in the context of the current socioeconomic crisis in the emerging Palestinian State. It focuses on the design ofan efficient and equitable cost-recovery mechanism for primary health care services, based on the value of improving the quality of care from the patients' perspective. The study makes use of the contingentvaluation method to assess the value, for the patients, of improving the quality of care, by eliciting patients' willingness to pay values for different quality improvements. A contingent valuation questionnaire was designed based on a decomposed valuation scenario and the payment card elicitation technique, with user-based financial contributions at the point of consumption being the payment vehicle. The elicited values were used to inform decision-makers about the highestextra user fee patients would be willing to pay to benefit from specified improvements in the quality of care.