At the same time, the revenue base shrank, causing total government revenue to fall in nominal terms by around 7%. Although health spending as a share of total government expenditure remained reasonably steady during this time, public debt increased rapidly - more than doubling as a share of GDP - to cope with the fall in government revenues. This included changes to user charge policy and public sector eligibility aiming to both raise revenues and reduce unnecessary demand for services. There were also renewed calls to implement the new universal health system (see Box 1).