Suchergebnisse

Witter, Sophie - ORCID 0000-0002-7656-6188 orcid:0000-0002-7656-6188 ; Bertone, Maria Paola - ORCID 0000-0001-8890-583X orcid:0000-0001-8890-583X ; Replaced with final published version 2020-04-16 ; WHO has well-developed guidance for health financing policy, which supports progress towards universal health coverage (UHC) and overall health system goals. Central to this is the importance of public finances, and the role of government in using those finances in the best way, to strengthen their health system to maximize progress towards UHC. Fragile and conflict affected settings (FCAS) present a growing challenge for countries trying to make progress towards UHC and improve health. This paper examines the core features of FCAS, including deficits in capacity, legitimacy, and security, and considers their implications for efforts to build resilient health systems. Health financing interventions pursued in FCAS in response to both the challenges and opportunities arising from the different deficits are summarized using the WHO health financing functional approach as the organizing framework. Data analysis shows that FCAS countries have significantly higher out of pocket expenditures, greater external dependency and health-related impoverishment, as well as lower mean government expenditure on health. There are substantial challenges for health financing in FCAS settings but considerable ingenuity has also been shown in addressing them, often driven by external stakeholders. Certain approaches, such as performance-based contracting and funding emerged in FCAS settings out of the need to innovate but leave a longer legacy which is given close consideration. This paper forms provides the background to and informs a second paper which revises and adapts WHO's health financing guidance in the context of FCAS. ; Financial support was provided by the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (Making Country Health Systems Stronger programme). ...

Maria Paola Bertone - orcid:0000-0001-8890-583X ; Sophie Witter - orcid:0000-0002-7656-6188 orcid:0000-0002-7656-6188 ; Over the last few years, there has been growing attention to health systems research in fragile and conflict-affected setting (FCAS) from both researchers and donors. In 2012, an exploratory literature review was conducted to analyse the main themes and findings of recent literature focusing on health financing in FCAS. Seven years later, this paper presents an update of that review, reflecting on what has changed in terms of the knowledge base, and what are the on-going gaps and new challenges in our understanding of health financing in FCAS. A total of 115 documents were reviewed following a purposeful, non-systematic search of grey and published literature. Data were analysed according to key health financing themes, ensuring comparability with the 2012 review. Bibliometric analysis suggests that the field has continued to grow, and is skewed towards countries with a large donor presence (such as Afghanistan). Aid coordination remains the largest single topic within the themes, likely reflecting the dominance of external players, not just substantively but also in relation to research. Many studies are commissioned by external agencies and in addition to concerns about independence of findings there is also likely a neglect of smaller, more home-grown reforms. In addition, we find that despite efforts to coordinate approaches across humanitarian and developmental settings, the literature remains distinct between them. We highlight research gaps, including empirical analysis of domestic and external financing trends across FCAS and non-FCAS over time, to understand better common health financing trajectories, what drives them and their implications. We highlight a dearth of evidence in relation to health financing goals and objectives for UHC (such as equity, efficiency, financial access), which is significant given the relevance of UHC, and the importance of the social and political values ...

BACKGROUND: Building upon decades of continuous reforms, Iran has been implementing various initiatives to reach universal health coverage (UHC). Improving efficiency is a crucial intermediate policy objective for UHC. Therefore, this article aimed to measure the efficiency and productivity changes of the Iranian health system in making progress towards UHC during 2010−2015 in comparison with 36 selected other upper-middle-income countries. METHODS: We used panel data to measure the variations in technical efficiency (TE) and total factor productivity (TFP) through an extended data envelopment analysis (EDEA) and Malmquist productivity index, respectively. General government health expenditure (GGHE) per capita (International dollar) was selected as the input variable. Service coverage of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis; family planning; antiretroviral therapy; skilled attendants at birth; Tuberculosis treatment success rate; and GGHE as % of total health expenditure (THE) were considered as output variables. The data for each indicator were taken from the Global Health Observatory data repository and World Development Indicator database, for 6 years (2010−2015). RESULTS: The TE scores of Iran's health system were 0.75, 0.77, 0.74, 0.74, 0.97, and 0.84 in the period 2010–2015, respectively. TFP improved in 2011 (1.02), 2013 (1.01), and 2014 (1.30, generally). The overall efficiency and TFP increased in 2014. Changes made in CCHE per capita and GGHE/THE attributed to the increase of efficiency. CONCLUSION: There is a growing demand for efficiency improvements in the health systems to achieve UHC. While there are no defined set of indicators or precise methods to measure health system efficiency, EDEA helped us to draw the picture of health system efficiency in Iran. Our findings highlighted the essential need for targeted and sustained interventions, i.e., allocation of enough proportion of public funds to the health sector, to improve universal financial coverage against health costs aiming to enhance the ...