[Health financing in Lebanon. I. Organization of health care services, coverage system and contribution of the Ministry of Public Health].

This paper intends to analyze the health care system in Lebanon from the organizational and financial points of view. It allows for an understanding of the health services' market by tackling it from different angles: supply versus demand, private versus public sectors, curative versus preventive services, hospital versus ambulatory care. This study necessitated a review of all previous surveys made in this field, during the after-war period. It also needed the daily collection and follow-up of pertinent data with all private and public agencies and concerned ministries, over a one-year period. In addition, a critical analysis has been made to the survey Conditions de vie des ménages, en 1997, that was carried out by the Central Administration of Statistics, that came to complete the missing data concerning household expenditures on insurance and health services. Especially that this survey covered the same period (1997), subject of this study. The paper reveals that, although the private sector is the main provider of both hospital and ambulatory care, private hospitals are flourishing on public money, whereas outpatients care is mainly financed by the households. Evidence shows that the Lebanese health care system succeeded in resolving the problem of accessibility to primary, secondary and tertiary health care, responding thus to the value of equity. But, at the price of an ever escalating cost, threatening the sustainability of the system. This is what is attained in this paper, as it shows clearly that expenditures on health have reached an alarming level of the GDP share. Our purpose being providing solid arguments in favor of reforming the health system.