Africa: Going into debt for health

One in four families living in the world’s poorest countries borrows money or sells assets in order to afford health care, according to the most recent issue of the US medical journal "Health Affairs". he authors calculated almost 26 percent of households representing 3.6 billion people – most often the poorest with little or no health insurance – used "hardship financing" from 2002 to 2004 to cover health costs.