ReviewBMC health services research2015
From institutionalization of user fees to their abolition in West Africa: a story of pilot projects and public policies.
Review in BMC health services research, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 55 citations in OpenAlex.
- Trapped by debt: an ethnographic study of medical indebtedness and hospital detention in the Fundong Health District, Cameroon.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- How do free healthcare policies impact utilization of maternal and child health services in fragile settings? Evidence from a controlled interrupted time series analysis in Burkina Faso.Health policy and planning · 2024Article
- Has the Gratuité policy reduced inequities in geographic access to antenatal care in Burkina Faso? Evidence from facility-based data from 2014 to 2022.Frontiers in global women's health · 2024Article
- A conceptualisation of scale-up and sustainability of social innovations in global health: a narrative review and integrative framework for action.Global health action · 2023Review
- Using systems thinking to understand the scale-up and sustainability of health innovation: a case study of seasonal malaria chemoprevention processes in Burkina Faso.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Effectiveness of the Gratuité user fee exemption policy on utilization and outcomes of maternal, newborn and child health services in conflict-affected districts of Burkina Faso from 2013 to 2018: a pre-post analysis.Conflict and health · 2023Article
- Stakeholder perceptions and experiences from the implementation of the Gratuité user fee exemption policy in Burkina Faso: a qualitative study.Health research policy and systems · 2023Article
- Innovations in mutuality: challenges and learnings for the Universal Health Insurance Plan in Mali.BMJ global health · 2023Article
- To What Extent Do Free Healthcare Policies and Performance-Based Financing Reduce Out-of-Pocket Expenditures for Outpatient services? Evidence From a Quasi-experimental Study in Burkina Faso.International journal of health policy and management · 2023Article
- Knowledge of COVID-19 and the impact on indigents' access to healthcare in Burkina Faso.International journal for equity in health · 2022Article
- Ensuring continuity of care during the COVID-19 pandemic in Guinea: Process evaluation of a health indigent fund.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Out-of-pocket payments and catastrophic expenditures due to traffic injuries in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.Health economics review · 2021Article
- Community Health Worker Program Sustainability in Africa: Evidence From Costing, Financing, and Geospatial Analyses in Mali.Global health, science and practice · 2021Article
- Analyzing the Financial Sustainability of User Fee Removal Policies: A Rapid First Assessment Methodology with a Practical Application for Burkina Faso.Applied health economics and health policy · 2020Article
- Do Targeted User Fee Exemptions Reach the Ultra-Poor and Increase their Healthcare Utilisation? A Panel Study from Burkina Faso.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- The impact of the obstetrical risk insurance scheme in Mauritania on maternal healthcare utilization: a propensity score matching analysis.Health policy and planning · 2020Article
- An Evaluation of Healthcare Use and Child Morbidity 4 Years After User Fee Removal in Rural Burkina Faso.Maternal and child health journal · 2019Article
- Inequities and their determinants in coverage of maternal health services in Burkina Faso.International journal for equity in health · 2018Article
- Street-level workers' inadequate knowledge and application of exemption policies in Burkina Faso jeopardize the achievement of universal health coverage: evidence from a cross-sectional survey.International journal for equity in health · 2018Article
- Time to abandon amateurism and volunteerism: addressing tensions between the Alma-Ata principle of community participation and the effectiveness of community-based health insurance in Africa.BMJ global health · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
This article analyzes the historical background of the institutionalization of user fees and their subsequent abolition in West Africa. Based on a narrative review, we present the context that frames the different articles in this supplement. We first show that a general consensus has emerged internationally against user fees, which were imposed widely in Africa in the 1980s and 1990s; at that time, the institutionalization of user fees was supported by evidence from pilot projects funded by international aid agencies. Since then there have been other pilot projects studying the abolition of user fees in the 2000s, but these have not yet had any real influence on public policies, which are often still chaotic. This perplexing situation might be explained more by ideologies and political will than by insufficient financial capacity of states.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.