Summary

The extension of social health protection in developingcountries is widely recognized as a priority. Variousfinancing and institutional methods can be used in pursuingthis objective, but none of them can achieve universal coveragein the short term. Based on an analysis of the respectivestrengths and weaknesses of social health insurance andcommunity-based health care schemes, this article demonstratesthe high potential of coverage extension strategies thatuse a pluralistic institutional approach to establish linkages andexploit complementarities optimally. A typology of potentiallinkages among different methods is presented and their valueadded illustrated using country examples.