Case study

There is a strong economic rationale for investing in health, especially for expanding primary

and basic secondary health care to areas where it is almost nonexistent. Cambodia's health indicators

are among the worst in the Asian and Pacific region. Average life expectancy at birth is estimated at

only 56.4 years. Infant mortality is estimated to be 95 per 1,000 per live births, while the mortality rate

under the age of 5 is 124 and the maternal mortality rate is 437 per 100,000 live births (Cambodia

Demographic and Health Survey 2000). Rates of malnutrition are the second highest in Southeast Asia

with an estimated 56 percent of children under 5 affected by chronic malnutrition. Moreover, progress

in improving these health indicators has been slow and, in some cases, for example infant and child

mortality, the rates appear to have increased in the 1990s.

Health care is often characterized by asymmetrical information with respect to medical interventions. This is especially true in Cambodia, where education levels of patients are low and people

often do not know about even basic health practices, such as emergency obstetric care and child

health. In many areas, private, unregulated health services are the primary source of health care. The

lack of regulation and consumer information often puts the health of patients at risk and drives up the

cost of health care. Publicly provided health services can help bridge the gap and provide information

about good health practices and alternatives in health care.

Credit markets are weak in Cambodia and health insurance is virtually nonexistent. A health

crisis in a household can lead to a household financial crisis and, for the 80 percent of the population

that lives near or below the poverty line in Cambodia, the threat of such a crisis is ever present. Thus,

a formal and transparent fee system for health care reduces uncertainty of health care expenditures

and protects the poor from the burden of health care costs. At present, virtually no protection exists for

the poor but, with a formal system, it is possible to establish fee exemptions and social protection funds

and, eventually, insurance schemes to protect households in the event of an unexpected health crisis.

A lack of trained health care providers is a key constraint to improving the health care

workers' performance and providing services to the poor. Many public rural facilities have staff shortages that limit access to general and specialized health services. Remote health centers are seriously

understaffed in midwifery and reproductive health services. A large proportion of health providers lack

necessary curative and preventative skills to provide effective health care. The lack of trained health

care providers is compounded by the poor capacity to effectively plan, manage, and finance the health

sector. As a result, poor Cambodians have largely not benefited from available health services.

Investment in primary health care in the remote areas of a developing country has a positive

impact not only on poverty but also on health equity. According to Sen (2002), health equity is a central

feature of "fairness and justice in social arrangements." It is not concerned only with health in isolation in terms of the distribution of health or the distribution of health care. Fairness and justice in

social arrangements also include consideration for economic allocations and the role of health in

human life and freedom. The provinces where the Project will be implemented are among the poorest

in the country and generally have worse health and nonmonetary indicators of poverty than the national average

1. The _______ line can be known through __________

2. which one of the ______ tax systems will move in the course of the lessening of monetary discrepancies____________

3. In the Keynesian concept fairness between_______ savings and _______can be brought based on the alliteration in the

4.In the perspective of the production function of cobb- Douglas __________

5. The expectations which makes the insignificance curve rounded to the derivation can be known as the _________

6. personal income in one of the following can be encompasses but it can not be included in from national income can be __________

7. it is known to be convex as isoquant due to the origin due to the fact that___________

8. the contact which exist among______- and quantity which can be purchasedat the given price is named as__________

9. A balanced conclusion producer ______-does which of the subsequent____________

10. Economists commonly be certain_________ of that production expectations is_____________