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Background: The many forms of healthcare fee exemptions implemented in Burkina Faso since the 2000s have varied between total exemption (free) and cost subsidisation. This article examines both options, their contextual variations and the ways in which they affect access to healthcare for vulnerable people as well as the operation of the health system. This research is part of an interdisciplinary regional program on the elimination of user fees for health services in West Africa (Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger)., Method: A conceptual framework and a chronological review of policy interventions are used as references to summarise the results of the three qualitative studies presented. Historical reference points are used to describe the emergence of healthcare fee exemption policies in Burkina Faso and the events that influenced their adoption. The joint analysis of opinions on options for fee exemption focuses on the different types of repercussions on access to healthcare and the operation of the health system., Results: In conjunction with the twists and turns of the gradual development of a national health policy and in response to international recommendations, healthcare fee exemptions have evolved since colonisation. The limitations of the changes introduced with cost recovery and the barriers to healthcare access for the poorest people led to the adoption of the current sectorial fee exemptions. The results provide information on the reasons for the changes that have occurred over time. The nuanced perspectives of different categories of people surveyed about fee exemption options show that, beyond the perceived effects on healthcare access and the health system, the issue is one of more equitable governance., Conclusions: In principle, the fee exemption measures are intended to provide improved healthcare access for vulnerable groups. In practice, the negative effects on the operation of the health system advocate for reforms to harmonise the changes to multifaceted fee exemptions and the actual needs to promote effectiveness and sustainability.

Background: Burkina Faso, like many low and middle income countries, has been taking a range of actions to address its poor maternal and neonatal health indicators. In 2006 the government introduced an innovative national subsidy scheme for deliveries and emergency obstetric care in public facilities. This article reports on a complex evaluation of this policy, carried out 5 years after its introduction, which examined its effects on utilisation, quality of care, equity and the health system as a whole, as well as its cost and sustainability., Methods: The evaluation was carried out in six purposively selected districts, as well as at national level, using a case study approach. Data sources included: national and district routine and survey data, household interviews with women who had recently given birth, data extraction from hospital and medical records, and key informant and health worker interviews., Results: The underlying secular trend of a 1% annual increase in the facility-based delivery rate (1988-2010) was augmented by an additional 4% annual increase from 2007 onwards (after the policy was introduced), especially in rural areas and amongst women from poor households. The absence of baseline quality of care data made it difficult to assess the impact of the policy on quality of care, but hospitals with the best level of implementation of the subsidy offered higher quality of care (as measured by health care near-misses), so there is no evidence of a negative impact on quality (as is often feared). Similarly, there is little evidence of unintended negative effects on untargeted services. Household payments for facility-based deliveries have reduced significantly, compared with payments before the policy, and the policy as a whole is affordable, costing about 2% of total public health expenditure. Concerns include that the amounts paid by households are higher than the rates set by the policy, and also that 7% of households still say that they cannot afford to pay. Wealthier women have higher utilisation of services, as before, and the policy of fully exempting indigents is not being put into practice., Conclusions: These findings highlight the importance of maintaining the subsidy policy, given the evidence of positive outcomes, but they also point out areas where attention is needed to ensure the poor and most vulnerable population benefit fully from the policy.