Protecting the poor? Impact of the national health equity fund on utilization of government health services in Cambodia, 2006-2013

Abstract

Introduction Cambodia's health equity fund (HEF) is the country's most significant social security scheme, covering the poorest one-fifth of the national population. During the last two decades, the HEF system was scaled up from an initial two health districts to national coverage of public health facilities. This is the first national study to examine the impact of the HEF on the utilisation of public health facilities. Methods We first investigated the level of national HEF population coverage and health service use made by HEF eligible members using an administrative HEF operational dataset. Second, through multilevel interrupted time series analysis of routine monthly utilisation statist..