Background This article presents an Asian experience of abolishing health-care user fees:
Nepal’s universal free health-care policy, implemented in 2008. Based on
doctoral fieldwork between August 2008 and April 2009, the paper analyses
primary-care facilities’ and central and district health systems’ experiences with
the policy. It makes a unique contribution to existing evidence because it
explicitly applies organizational theory within a carefully designed, rigorous,
multiple case-study analysis to deepen our understanding of the organizational
and ‘people’ factors in the successful removal of user fees.
Methods The cases were two pairs of primary-care facilities in one district, paired for
comparison of the facilities’ experiences with the policy in relation to its effects
on health care utilization. Data collection methods included document reviews;
key informant interviews at district and central levels; in-depth, semi-structured
interviews and group interviews at case facilities. (Data on indicators of
utilization and quality changes over time were also collected and will be
published separately). Using key elements of Nadler and Tushman’s
‘Organizational Congruence’ model, a degree-of-fit analysis tested the study’s
initial propositions and yielded generalizations for contexts in and outside Nepal.
Results The study found that Nepal’s key implementation challenges were similar to
Africa’s: insufficient or delayed inputs of drugs and compensation; insufficient
workforce and the resulting reduced quality of services that hampered facilities’
relationships with their clients and health providers’ attitudes. However, the
Nepalese case facilities with (1) good intra- and inter-facility relationships, (2)
adequate staffing, (3) well-oriented providers and (4) previously trained, betterinformed
and skilled health management committees experienced higher
utilization and better-quality indicators over time.
Conclusions Through its detailed analysis of Nepal’s experience in removing user fees, the
study highlights the importance of addressing the ‘people’ and ‘organizational’
factors in health-policy development and implementation.