Task-sharing or public finance for the expansion of surgical access in rural Ethiopia: an extended cost-effectiveness analysis

Abstract

This article, published in Health Policy and Planning, utilizes an extended cost effectiveness analysis (ECEA) to examine how policies to expand access to surgery in rural Ethiopia would impact health, impoverishment, and equity. The study finds that health benefits, financial risk protection, and equity appear to be in tension in the expansion of access to surgical care. Health benefits from each of the examined policies accrue primarily among the poor, but without travel vouchers, many policies also induce impoverishment among the poor while providing financial risk protection to the rich. These findings call into question the equitable distribution of benefits by these policies.