A new World Bank report— Reaching The Poor: What Works, What Doesn't, and Why — warns both developing countries and the international development community of gaps between intentions and verifiable results in helping poor people battle illness and disease.  According to the new study, health, nutrition, and population programs often fail to reach those poor people that need them the most.  Health programs designed to reach poor people often end up instead helping the better-off, the study says. However, it adds that this situation can be avoided, and based on a number of successful national case studies, offers governments key policy steps to make sure that disadvantaged groups get the crucial health care services they urgently need.  Drawing on experience from African, Asian, and Latin American countries, the report documents that both public and private services—including services undertaken specifically to help the disadvantaged— usually end up reaching people in better-off groups more frequently.

Good Intentions Are Not Enough: Too Few Health Programs Reach Poor People, But Better Results Are Possible - New World Bank Report