Healthcare for all at affordable prices is still a major but universally elusive goal. Everyone spends money on healthcare, and it is the most impoverishing consumption item. Thus, most governments (and the United Nations) promote Universal Health Coverage — each country's unique blend of tools for healthcare financing, including taxes, subsidies and market controls.Most people in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have no health insurance of any kind. And most LMIC governments lack the political will, information, or resources to require their citizens to buy health insurance themselves or to subsidize insurance for all who cannot afford the price. This book deals with financing voluntary and contributory health insurance for resource-poor and rural groups in LMICs.This book addresses three issues. The first is how to catalyse demand for health insurance and develop insurance literacy among the largely illiterate and innumerate target population, using training programs to build an enabling consensus, allowing locals to create and administer such schemes. The second involves the process of developing simplified methods for risk assessment, which can help to underwrite risks, price the micro health insurance schemes, and ensure proper implementation. The third issue is formulating a compelling business case which would make this health insurance affordable, financially sustainable, and operationally scalable.This book develops insurance education and financial literacy for students of economics, business administration, insurance, development studies, and social work to prepare them for practical work as implementers, policymakers, or evaluators. A supplementary section for teachers and students includes comprehension questions.

This book is the first and only study on implementing Universal Health Coverage in poor, rural and informal settings, with end-to-end guidance for rolling out a demand-driven and needs-based health insurance model. The chapters are comprehensive, covering topics such as data collection and analysis for contextual risk assessment, the design of suitable benefits packages, how to price microinsurance, insurance education for illiterate or innumerate populations, the setting up of governance bodies and training staff for key roles, and information management.The book contains insights gained from years of fieldwork in several countries and is valuable reading for undergraduate and graduate students and practitioners of health microinsurance. As a companion to the author's first book, Financing Micro Health Insurance: Theory, Methods and Evidence, this book provides the only current source of information on implementing health microinsurance. The practical guidelines to setting up and operating a microinsurance scheme are accompanied by impact evaluation, chapter exercises and Issue Briefs that present examples of using tools that are necessary for successful implementation.

Addressing the challenge of covering heath care expenses—while minimizing economic risks. Moral hazard—the tendency to change behavior when the cost of that behavior will be borne by others—is a particularly tricky question when considering health care. Kenneth J. Arrow’s seminal 1963 paper on this topic (included in this volume) was one of the first to explore the implication of moral hazard for health care, and Amy Finkelstein—recognized as one of the world’s foremost experts on the topic—here examines this issue in the context of contemporary American health care policy. Drawing on research from both the original RAND Health Insurance Experiment and her own research, including a 2008 Health Insurance Experiment in Oregon, Finkelstein presents compelling evidence that health insurance does indeed affect medical spending and encourages policy solutions that acknowledge and account for this. The volume also features commentaries and insights from other renowned economists, including an introduction by Joseph P. Newhouse that provides context for the discussion, a commentary from Jonathan Gruber that considers provider-side moral hazard, and reflections from Joseph E. Stiglitz and Kenneth J. Arrow. “Reads like a fireside chat among a group of distinguished, articulate health economists.” —Choice

Over the past twenty years, many low- and middle-income countries have experimented with health insurance options. While their plans have varied widely in scale and ambition, their goals are the same: to make health services more affordable through the use of public subsidies while also moving care providers partially or fully into competitive markets. Until now, however, we have known little about the actual effects of these dramatic policy changes. Understanding the impact of health insurance-based care is key to the public policy debate of whether to extend insurance to low-income populationsand if so, how to do itor to serve them through other means.

Health insurance is the mechanism used to respond to uncertainty and risk aversion to illness. Health insurance, whether private, public, or mixed, serves as the main structural foundation for health systems across countries. Its objectives are to minimize the financial burden of medical expenses on people and to enhance population health. Globally, there is a great diversity of health systems and even greater variation among them. There are substantial differences in health systems and health insurance between low- and middle-income nations. The primary explanation for this could be the disparities in the resources available to fund the health system. High-income countries have the financing ability to fund the provision of health care, whereas low- and medium-income countries have a harder time funding health care. Another challenge health systems face nowadays is the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3: healthy lives and promoting well-being for all. To create resilient and sustainable health systems that guarantee healthy lives and foster well-being for people of all ages, many countries are redesigning their healthcare systems by improving financing, access, and coverage. This book discusses these issues in different health systems around the world, in low-, middle-, and high-income countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the world's vulnerabilities to health and economic ruin from disease outbreaks. But the pandemic merely reveals fundamental weaknesses and contradictions in global health. What are the roots of discontents in global health? How do geo-politics, power dynamics, knowledge gaps, racism, and corruption affect global health? Is foreign aid for health due for a radical overhaul?This book is an incisive guide to the practice of global health in real life. Global health policy is at a crossroads. It is on trial at the interface between the Global North and the Global South. There has been remarkable progress in health outcomes over the past century. Yet, countries face a complex landscape of lofty ambitions in the form of political commitments to Universal Health Coverage, Human Capital, and Global Health Security. These ambitions are tempered by multiple constraints. Investors in global health must navigate a minefield of uneven progress, great expectations, and denials of scientific evidence by entrenched interests. That terrain is further complicated by the hegemonic suppression of innovation that threatens the status quo and by self-perpetuating cycles of dependency of the Global South on the Global North.This book is an unflinching scrutiny of concepts and cases by a veteran of global health policy and practice. It holds a mirror to the world and lays out pathways to a better future. The book is a must-have GPS for policy makers and practitioners as they navigate the maze of global health.

This volume reviews the economic underpinnings (investment and financing) and institutional reforms needed to successfully scale up the education of health workers. In this regard, the book examines five major economic and institutional challenges that policy makers face: (1) governance of health education organizations and systems; (2) approaches to financing the education of health workers; (3) the special nature of capital investment in expanding the capacity of health education institutions; (4) public-private partnerships in health education; and (5) equity in accessing health education, with a special focus on issues that arise from private approaches to the education of health workers.Much of the existing literature focuses on the quality and contents of training health workers, and very little has been written on the institutional dimension of financing their training and education. This book examines the complex institutional and financial models and approaches that can impact the demand and supply of health worker education programs around the world.Building on the findings of the Independent Commission on the Education of Health Professionals for the 21st Century, which published on the foundations and the issues of global postsecondary professional education, this volume brings in new and in-depth aspects such as governance, capital investments, and the role of the private sector in the production of health professionals; thus allowing the reader to understand how the health worker education field has moved from theory to practice.

The recent expansion of health insurance coverage in the USA under the Affordable Health Care Act, and current threats to reverse the benefits of this reform, have once again focused the world's attention on the difficult challenges faced by other countries trying to provide better access to healthcare to their population at an affordable cost. This textbook provides a comparative review of financing universal access to healthcare in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.The first two chapters of the book provide a framework for financing universal access to healthcare. The remaining eight chapters present case studies of eight OECD countries that have successfully introduced reforms to finance universal access to healthcare for their population through landmark legislative reforms. A concluding chapter focuses on the lessons learned from the OECD and recommendations from policymakers and others who are planning similar reforms. The book is designed as a learning tool for students and as a user guide for policymakers.

This book explores the business and investment implications of sustainability, both opportunities and challenges. The volume lays the groundwork for understanding the growing areas of sustainable business and sustainable finance. Over the past few decades, the world has witnessed significant improvements in economic development that meet a wide range of human needs. Ensuring that such development takes place in a 'sustainable' way is the central focus of the book. The book provides insights for businesses, investors, and others on how to navigate this complex and evolving landscape.The United Nations and global leaders in business and investment have emphasized the important role that the private sector can play in protecting the environment and promoting a more sustainable use of resources.'What is needed now is a new era of economic growth — growth that is at the same time socially and environmentally sustainable. This call for action in the Forward to the 1987 Bruntland Report (Our Common Future), which emphasizes that economic growth is part of the solution not the problem, still rings true nearly 40 years later.Gro Harlem BrundtlandReport of the World Commission on Environment and Development, United Nations 1987'Private sector leadership is vital to advance sustainable development and fight the existential threats of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.'António GuterresUnited Nations Secretary-GeneralMessage to International Chamber of Commerce's 13th World Chambers CongressUnited Nations Press Release on the Environment, June 21, 2023 (SG/SM/21851)Like Henry Ford's strategy over 100 years ago at the time of the mass introduction of the Model T Ford, Elon Musk had a similar strategy for switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy powered cars. '[Initially enter] the high end of the market, where customers are prepared to pay a premium, and then drive down [the] market as fast as possible to higher unit volume and lower prices with each successive model.'Elon MuskCEO Tesla Inc, Interview with Solar Tribune, Feb 16, 2020'Investing for the long term requires taking a long-term view of what will impact returns, including demographics, government policy, technological advancements, and the transition to a low carbon economy.'Laurence D FinkBlackrock Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Larry Fink's Annual Chairman's Letter to Investors,Blackrock, 2023'Capital markets are an extraordinarily powerful tool in the fight against climate change. Government action is certainly critical. But ultimately, reducing emissions globally depends on the private sector recognizing the commercial opportunities that sustainability presents.'Michael R BloombergFounder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg PhilanthropiesDavid M SolomonCEO of Goldman SachsMobilize the Market to Fight Global WarmingBloomberg, Opinion Article, April 27, 2021

Annotation This volume views community-based microinsurance as an incremental first step to improved financial protection and better access to health services for the poor. While community-based financing can be structured in various ways, this volume focuses on reinsurance as a mechanism for improving micro-level health insurance units. It outlines strategies and policies that can be applied by countries and donors to improve access to health care services.