Freeing up healthcare – A guide to removing user fees

Freeing up Healthcare is a technical guide but it also summarises the key economic and political arguments for removing user fees. It demonstrates that political commitment and effective communication are essential ingredients of a successful policy change. Removing user fees is an effective strategy in increasing people’s access to healthcare. It can make an important contribution to getting the Millennium Development Goals on child and maternal health back on track. Using evidence from Uganda and other countries, Freeing up Healthcare sets out the five key steps policy-makers and technical staff should take to remove fees for essential healthcare. The guide explains how to:

• analyse your starting position;
• estimate how removing fees will affect service utilisation;
• estimate additional human resource and drug requirements;
• mobilise additional funding; and
• communicate the policy change