Health Financing

As the world moves from vertical programs to Universal Health Coverage, governments must address health financing to develop systems. This chapter focuses on the financing of health care in impoverished countries. Health care is funded by a mix of financing—government expenditure, donor financing, out-of-pocket expenditures, and health insurance. From the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness of 2005 to the newly developed Framework Convention on Global Health, there is a growing movement for the shared global responsibility to finance the right to health. This chapter covers the evolution of health financing, from the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health, the Gleneagles summit of 2005, and the Abuja Declaration in 2001, to recent novel financing and insurance schemes. The basic measures of macroeconomics are highlighted. Government, off-budget, and out-of-pocket expenditure are explained. Insurance and novel sources of health financing are discussed as they relate to financing and health as a human right.