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Assessing the Private Sector: Using Non-Government Resources to Strengthen Public Health Goals

For many years the focus of government policy has been on the actions of the public sector in financing and providing health services. Growing recognition of the diversity, size, and scope of non-government actors in health service financing and provision has, however, led to a reassessment of both the potential of the private sector to support the attainment of public health goals and the appropriateness of existing public/private linkages. One implication of this reassessment is that the traditional realm of public policy needs to be extended to include the multiplicity of non-government actors. In particular, three policy areas look promising in terms of changing the nature of public/private interactions in health service provision and financing in support of improving health outcomes. These three areas form the core of the private sector assessment process, and shape both the data collection requirements and methods which are the subject of this methodological briefing paper.