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Background: For the US health indicators to improve to the level of other developed countries, the use of Community Health Workers (CHWs) in vulnerable populations has been indicated as a possible long-term intervention. There are few models of long-term deployment of CHWs as part of the district level public health system in the US. Method: In this study we interviewed CHWs who served as neighborhood-integrated health district staff assigned to low-income housing in Richmond, Virginia for 10 years. Qualitative analyses of their taped and transcribed interviews resulted in 5 themes from the interviews. The themes were Activities, Satisfaction, Strengths, Facilitation/Resources and Challenges. We highlighted quotes from the CHWs interviews for themes and summarized the findings from each theme. Results: CHWs carried out a variety of activities daily and these were described. The CHWs were generally satisfied with their job because it enabled them to assist others. The strength of their communities was resilience, and the resources they needed more included physical resources, human resources, political support, and more comprehensive programming. Their client's challenges include transportation, mental health, and physical safety and the CHWs challenge to effectively carrying out their work with clients was trust by community members. Conclusion: The information garnered from the CHWs would be useful in designing CHW programs at other health districts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India's health indicators are negatively impacted by the high percentage of out‐of‐pocket expenditures, which leaves many unable to access health care or impoverishes them. To improve this situation, the Indian government in 2018, as part of health a reform program called Ayushman Bharat Initiative (AB), started the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) as a scheme to provide financial access to secondary and tertiary healthcare services for people living in poverty. The AB‐PMJAY is a publicly‐funded insurance program that provides over $6,000 per indigent family per year for in‐patient hospital care. We compare the rollout of the program in two Indian States, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, which have relatively better health indicators compared with other Indian States. Questionnaires were developed for the two states based on the separate programs they had ongoing before AB‐PMJAY was introduced and the differing implementation strategy they undertook. We interviewed 21 health workers (10 from Kerala and 11 from Tamil Nadu), at the frontline of implementation and analyzed the narrative of the answers given for related themes. We found that low reimbursement rates may limit the number of private hospitals participating in the program, and that the classification criteria for eligibility may need to be updated. We also found that differing political alignment between the central government and subregional governments may affect how well the program is implemented. Overall, interview subjects felt that the program would lead to better health care access for the poor if well implemented and sustained. Key point: Problems highlighted by the interviewees were lack of private hospital participation, how eligibility for the program was determined, as well as ability of the government to sustain the program long term given the financial outlays for the program, but long‐term implementation is needed for the scheme to improve India's health outcomes. The political affiliation of state government versus national government may also affect rollout. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the question of how women in parliament are impacting health outcomes in African countries. One of the basic ji.mctions of parliaments is budgeting and by evaluating the impact of female parliamentarians on public expenditure on health we can determine if their impact on health outcomes comes from this fiscal responsibility of parliament. The effect of percentage of women in parliament on health expenditure in the next year was analyzed using regression analyses while controlling for GDP, HIV rate and Maternal Mortality was determined. We conclude that women in parliament influence health outcomes by increasing budgetary allocation to health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]