The Challenge
India has made considerable progress in health since independence; however the country’s health system continues to face many challenges and has fallen short of several planned health goals. The majority of Indians remain uncovered, as defined by their lack of access to affordable, quality health care. Historically, the Government of India has underspent on health care relative to its middle-income peers, and as a result, out-of-pocket spending accounts for nearly 70% of total health expenditure.
The Opportunity
The Government of India has made a commitment to increase expenditure on health significantly over the next five to ten years in an effort to move toward universal health coverage. The Planning Commission of India commissioned a High Level Expert Group (HLEG) on Universal Health Coverage to propose a 10-year strategy going forward. The Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), the secretariat of HLEG, has requested support from Results for Development (R4D) to serve as a key technical partner in ensuring high quality analysis and recommendations on future health financing policy for India.
Our Work
- Carrying out analysis of selected health financing and policy issues for HLEG.
- Conducting research and synthesizing international experience on the key issues in a series of technical papers:
- Risk Analysis of Health Financing Models
- Global Experience on Purchaser-Provider Arrangements
- Global Experience on Fiscal Equalization Principles and Practices for the Health Sector
- The Role of Private Intermediaries in Public Insurance Systems
- Lessons from the International Experience on Risk Pooling
- Exploring Options for Mobilising Domestic Resources in India
- Facilitating access to additional expertise from outside India that is especially pertinent to the decisions facing Indian policy-makers.
- Supporting national and regional workshops to share and disseminate the HLEG findings recommendations
