Health Equity: 05/27/09

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

[EQ] IADB/BID Call for Proposals on: Chronic Disease Management in Latin America and Caribbean

Call for Proposals on:
Chronic Disease Management in Latin America and Caribbean

Inter American Development Bank Research Network Project

Proposals are due Friday, June 19, 2009

Website: http://idbdocs.iadb.org/wsdocs/getdocument.aspx?docnum=2003506

“……The overall objective of this Research Network Project is to provide documentation and evidence to encourage adoption of likely-effective interventions to prevent and manage chronic conditions in Latin America and the Caribbean, answering the policy question of how (well) different health systems in the region deliver likely effective interventions to prevent and manage chronic conditions. It is hoped that this evidence will contribute to a strategic shift in the thinking of health decision makers in the region (e.g. ministries of health, finance and economic development, academia, health practitioners) toward more effective public policies in the control of chronic disease.

“….To achieve this objective this Research Network Project will finance up to four (4) studies that will examine and – where possible- evaluate the effectiveness of innovative public policies aimed to control chronic disease in different health system contexts.

Each approved research proposal will receive financial support up to US$25,000, depending on the scope of the work proposed.

Final papers will be considered for dissemination as IDB working papers and may be included in a book or a special journal issue on chronic disease management in LAC. For studies with only IDB funding, other forms of dissemination or publication should be explicitly approved by the coordinators until the journal issue option has been fully defined. Proposals may include suggestions for further dissemination of the final version of the paper and its policy implications….”

Research institutions or individual researchers should submit proposals via e-mail to health@iadb.org

Questions should be directed to the same address.

IDB Research: http://www.iadb.org/research/

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[EQ] Financing health care in the European Union: challenges and policy responses

Financing health care in the European Union: challenges and policy responses

Sarah Thomson, Thomas Foubister and Elias Mossialos
World Health Organization 2009, on behalf of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies

Available online as PDF file [224p.] at: http://www.euro.who.int/document/E92469.pdf

“…….Health care systems across the European Union face a common challenge: the high cost of health care. Governments strive to ensure that cost pressures do not undermine values such as universal coverage and equitable financing and access.

Focusing on the three health care financing functions - collection, pooling and purchasing - as well as on coverage, this book analyses the organization of health care financing in the Member States of the European Union, discusses the principal financing reform trends of recent years, and assesses their capacity to help ensure fiscal sustainability.

The book includes a useful annex detailing the health care financing systems of each of the 27 Member States of the European Union. It will inform the deliberations of policy- and decision-makers, both within and beyond the European Union, faced with reconciling rising costs with equitable and sustainable health care…..”

Content:
Introduction
1. The problem of sustainability
    1.1. Distinguishing economic and fi scal sustainability
    1.2. Addressing the fiscal sustainability problem
    1.3. Health care expenditure in context
2. Health care financing in the European Union
    2.1. Frameworks for analysis
    2.2. Descriptive analysis of fi nancing arrangements
3. Health care financing reforms: options, trends and impact
    3.1. Maximizing collection and changing the mix of contribution mechanisms
    3.2. Addressing fragmented pooling
    3.3. Expanding entitlement to public coverage and defining benefits
    3.4. From passive reimbursement to strategic purchasing of health services
4. Conclusions and policy recommendations
    4.1. Which reforms are most likely to enhance sustainability?
    4.2. Is there an optimal method of financing health care?
    4.3. Policy recommendations
References
Annex: summaries of health care fi nancing by Member State

The European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies is a partnership between the World Health Organization Regional Offi ce for Europe, the Governments of Belgium, Finland, Norway, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden, the Veneto Region of Italy, the European Investment Bank, the World Bank, the London School of Economics and Political Science and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

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[EQ] WHO Assembly Resolution on: Reducing health inequities through action on the social determinants of health

Reducing health inequities through action on the social determinants of health

SIXTY-SECOND WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY - WHA62.14 - Agenda item 12.5

22 May 2009

Available online as PDF file at: http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/A62/A62_R14-en.pdf

“….Confirming the importance of addressing the wider determinants of health and considering the actions and recommendations set out in the series of international health promotion conferences, from the Ottawa Charter on Health Promotion to the Bangkok Charter for Health Promotion in a Globalized World, making the promotion of health central to the global development agenda as a core responsibility of all governments,….”

CALLS UPON the international community, including United Nations agencies, intergovernmental bodies, civil society and the private sector:

(1) to take note of the final report of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health and its recommendations;

(2) to take action in collaboration with WHO’s Member States and the WHO Secretariat on assessing the impacts of policies and programmes on health inequities and on addressing the social determinants of health;

(3) to work closely with WHO’s Member States and the WHO Secretariat on measures to enhance health equity in all policies in order to improve health for the entire population and reduce inequities;

(4) to consider health equity in working towards achievement of the core global development goals and to develop indicators to monitor progress, and to consider strengthening international collaboration in addressing the social determinants of health and in reducing health inequities;

URGES Member States:

(1) to tackle the health inequities within and across countries through political commitment on the main principles of “closing the gap in a generation” as a national concern, as is appropriate, and to coordinate and manage intersectoral action for health in order to mainstream health equity in all policies, where appropriate, by using health and health equity impact assessment tools;

(2) to develop and implement goals and strategies to improve public health with a focus on health inequities;

(3) to take into account health equity in all national policies that address social determinants of health, and to consider developing and strengthening universal comprehensive social protection policies, including health promotion, disease prevention and health care, and promoting availability of and access to goods and services essential to health and well-being; (4) to ensure dialogue and cooperation among relevant sectors with the aim of integrating a consideration of health into relevant public policies and enhancing intersectoral action; (5) to increase awareness among public and private health providers on how to take account of social determinants when delivering care to their patients;

(6) to contribute to the improvement of the daily living conditions contributing to health and social well-being across the lifespan by involving all relevant partners, including civil society and the private sector;

(7) to contribute to the empowerment of individuals and groups, especially those who are marginalized, and take steps to improve the societal conditions that affect their health;

(8) to generate new, or make use of existing, methods and evidence, tailored to national contexts in order to address the social determinants and social gradients of health and health inequities;

(9) to develop, make use of, and if necessary, improve health information systems and research capacity in order to monitor and measure the health of national populations, with disaggregated data such as age, gender, ethnicity, race, caste, occupation, education, income and employment where national law and context permits so that health inequities can be detected and the impact of policies on health equity measured……….…”

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[EQ] WHO Assembly Resolution on: Primary health care, including health system strengthening

Primary health care, including health system strengthening

SIXTY-SECOND WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY - WHA62.12 - Agenda item 12.4

22 May 2009

Available online as PDF file at: http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/A62/A62_R12-en.pdf

“…..Strongly reaffirming the values and principles of primary health care, including equity, solidarity, social justice, universal access to services, multisectoral action, decentralization and community participation as the basis for strengthening health systems….”

URGES Member States:

(1) to ensure political commitment at all levels to the values and principles of the Declaration of Alma-Ata, keep the issue of strengthening health systems based on the primary health care approach high on the international political agenda, and take advantage, as appropriate, of health-related partnerships and initiatives relating to this issue, particularly to support achievement of the health-related Millennium Development Goals;

(2) to accelerate action towards universal access to primary health care by developing comprehensive health services and by developing national equitable, efficient and sustainable financing mechanisms, mindful of the need to ensure social protection and protect health budgets in the context of the current international financial crisis;

(3) to put people at the centre of health care by adopting, as appropriate, delivery models focused on the local and district levels that provide comprehensive primary health care services, including health promotion, disease prevention, curative care and palliative care, that are integrated and coordinated according to needs, while ensuring effective referral system;

(4) to promote active participation by all people, and re-emphasize the empowering of communities, especially women, in the processes of developing and implementing policy and improving health and health care, in order to support the renewal of primary health care;

(5) to train and retain adequate numbers of health workers, with appropriate skill mix, including primary health care nurses, midwives, allied health professionals and family physicians, able to work in a multidisciplinary context, in cooperation with non-professional community health workers in order to respond effectively to people’s health needs;

(6) to encourage that vertical programmes, including disease-specific programmes, are developed, integrated and implemented in the context of integrated primary health care;

(7) to improve access to appropriate medicines, health products and technologies, all of which are required to support primary health care;

(8) to develop and strengthen health information and surveillance systems, relating to primary health care in order to facilitate evidence-based policies and programmes and their evaluation;

(9) to strengthen health ministries, enabling them to provide inclusive, transparent and accountable leadership of the health sector and to facilitate multisectoral action as part of primary health care;….”

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