The role of institutional design and organizational practice for health ­financing performance and universal coverage

Overview

Common  to  many  countries  is  their  concern  to  establish  a  health  financing  system  that  enables them  to  move  towards  universal  coverage  -  defined  by  WHO  as  access  to  key  promotive, preventive,  curative  and  rehabilitative  health  interventions  for  all  at  an  affordable  cost,  thereby achieving  equity  in  access  (WHO,  2005).  This  is  particularly  the  case  for  low-  and  middle  income countries,  in  light  of  their  heavy  reliance  on  out-of-pocket  (OOP)  health  care  expenditure,  which represents  an  important  financial  burden  to  households.  The  challenge  is  how  to  improve  a  health financing  system  in  order  to  move  towards  and  achieve  universal  coverage  as  an  overall  desired policy  goal.   

This report is part of a series, The World Health Report 2010 Background Papers, which were written to inform the process of developing the key messages of the World Health Report 2010: Health systems financing: The path to universal coverage.