Breadth and Depth of benefit packages: Lessons from Latin America

Overview

Universal  Coverage  is  broadly  defined  as  "access  to  needed  services  without  the  risk  of financial  hardship”.    In  order  to  make  this  definition  operational,  however,  additional questions  need  to  be  addressed.  Which  services  are  needed?  By  whom?  Who  decides which  services  are  delivered  with  the  public  budget?  More  importantly,  given  that resources  are  scarce  and  no  country  in  the  world  is  able  to  provide  all  potentially effective  services  to  all  the  people  who  might  need  them,  which  services  should  be excluded  from  coverage?

This brief is part of a series, The World Health Report Technical Briefs, written to further develop key policy issues outlined in the World Health Report 2010: Health systems financing: The path to universal coverage. The Briefs give a concise overview of the issues. They describe some country experiences and propose a menu of actions for policy makers.