Title: | From Double Shock To Double Recovery - Implications And Options For Health Financing In The Time Of Covid-19 |
Authors: | Kurowski, Christoph Evans, David B. Tandon, Ajay Eozenou, Patrick Hoang-Vu Schmidt, Martin Irwin, Alec Cain, Jewelwayne Salcedo Pambudi, Eko Setyo Postolovska, Iryna |
Keywords: | Economic crisis COVID-19 Health financing Equity |
Issue Date: | Mar-2021 |
Publisher: | World Bank Group |
Citation: | Kurowski, C, Evans, D.B., Tandon, A., Eozenou, H., Schmidt, M., Irwin, A., Cain, J.S., Pambudi, E.S. & Postolovska, I. (2021). From Double Shock To Double Recovery - Implications And Options For Health Financing In The Time Of Covid-19. Washington, DC. World Bank Group |
Abstract: | The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a double shock - health and economic. As of March 1,
2021, COVID-19 has cost more than 2.5 million lives and triggered an economic recession
surpassing any economic downturn since World War II.
Almost all countries responded with rapid increases in government spending during 2020 to control
the pandemic and protect people, jobs, and businesses. Despite an expected return to economic
growth, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects government per capita spending to fall
across all country income groups in 2021 and 2022. This drop primarily reflects a reduction in the
capacity of many governments to further accumulate and service public debt.
Part I of this paper explores the impact of this current macro-fiscal outlook on the three primary
sources of health spending. Drawing on experiences from previous economic crises, scenario
analyses suggest a fall in government per capita spending on health in 2021 and 2022 unless
governments make bold choices to increase the share of health in general government spending.
The projected drop in per capita government spending on health is expected to coincide with lower
levels of household out-of-pocket spending on health and a possible decline in development
assistance for health (DAH).
The projected decline in government per capita health spending will threaten a recovery from the
health and economic shocks. An end to the pandemic can only come through enhanced disease
surveillance, strengthened delivery platforms, and the roll out of COVID-19 vaccines. Reclaiming
losses in progress toward universal health coverage (UHC) due to disruptions in the supply and
demand for essential non-COVID-19 health services during the pandemic is vital for a sustainable
and inclusive longer-term economic recovery.
Part II of the paper discusses policy options to meet the spending needs in health. These options
encompass strategies to make fiscal adjustments work and channel funds where they are most
needed, as well as policies to stabilize the balance sheets of social health insurance (SHI)
schemes. The paper explains how the health sector can play an active role in expanding fiscal
space, contributing to tax reforms, most importantly pro-health taxes, and mobilizing and absorbing
external financing, including debt relief.
Recognizing that the quality of spending has implications for its quantity, Part II also discusses the
challenges and opportunities of the crisis to increase the equity and efficiency of health spending.
These include which expenditures to cut and which to protect, which emergency measure to roll
back and which to roll out, as well as some of the most controversial trade-offs in health financing
underscored by the crisis.
Countries did not choose COVID-19, but their leaders have policy choices to make in health
financing that will impact the response to the pandemic, the capacity to get back on the path to
UHC, and ultimately the strength of the recovery. |
URI: | http://saruna.mnu.edu.mv/jspui/handle/123456789/10065 |
Appears in Collections: | ސިއްޙަތާއި ބޭސްވެރިކަން Health & Medical Sciences A
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