Health Financing

Universal health coverage is necessary to achieve healthy lives and promote well-being for all, but advancing it will require health financing interventions that both mobilize new resources and use existing resources as efficiently, equitably and accountably as possible.

As incomes are rising in many places, donor assistance for health is declining. As a result, countries are seeking strategies to mobilize domestic resources and take on a greater share of the funding responsibility. Maintaining and expanding effective coverage of priority health services will require careful planning — both across sectors and within the health sector — that is sensitive to countries’ macro-fiscal constraints.

Sustainable health financing also requires sufficient country capacity to effectively mobilize and manage resources for priority interventions, as well as to maintain the accountable and transparent achievement of quality results. Realizing these objectives will ultimately lead to expanded health coverage that protects people from catastrophic or impoverishing health costs and improves the health of whole populations.

R4D’s health financing experts inform planning and policymaking through data analytics and by strengthening the technical capacity of local change agents in countries seeking cost-efficient and sustainable systems. Our efforts include:

• Supporting governments in the design and execution of social and national health insurance schemes.
• Developing practical guidance that can foster dialogue on the alignment of public financial management and health financing.
• Exploring strategies that can help countries improve value for money and better leverage their existing resources.

Aside from providing technical expertise, R4D is building global communities of practitioners and policymakers who are engaged in collaborative learning around the achievement of universal health coverage and sustainable health financing solutions.

Photo: Access Afya ©Center for Health Market Innovations/R4D