Many developing countries have recently undertaken ambitious health reforms to
improve resource mobilization for health care. Their goals are universal health
care coverage for their people and financial protection against impoverishment
due to the costs of catastrophic illness.However, few low-income countries (LICs)
or middle-income countries (MICs) have achieved universal coverage. The experiences
of countries that have done so, though of great relevance to other lowand
middle-income countries on the verge of similar reforms, have not been consistently
evaluated and documented. To partially address this gap, the World Bank
has prepared this report documenting experiences in financing significant expansions
of health care coverage in low- and middle-income countries. The nine
“good practice” countries selected as case studies are: Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica,
Estonia, the Kyrgyz Republic, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tunisia, and Vietnam.