Cambodia is developing cutting-edge initiatives needed to break the links between poverty and ill-health. The most effective of these are the Health Equity Funds, fee-waiver schemes that aim to provide increased access to health services and greater community involvement for the poor. Recent research indicates that HEFs successfully reach the poor, work best with strong management and interventions to improve service quality and can be used alongside community-based health insurance with good effect. Now, HEF and CBHI schemes are being developed and scaled up within the broader framework of Cambodia’s emerging national health financing strategy to provide social health protection for the poor.