Extending the risk pool for health in developing countries: The challenges of moving to general tax funding

Increasing participation in effective health risk‐pooling arrangements in developing countries is an essential component of the package of policies designed to protect vulnerable households from the impoverishing consequences of health shocks. People who are poor, those at high risk and self‐employed/informally employed workers are three groups that raise particular issues in the formulation of health risk‐pooling policy. In this paper, policy options for extending risk‐pooling in developing countries are discussed, with particular attention to the merits and disadvantages of overcoming the shortcomings of payroll‐tax‐financed insurance through a greater role for general tax financing in the health sector.