Health Equity: 11/16/10

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

[EQ] Call for Papers on: Health and the Environment

Call for Papers on:
Health and the Environment

Papers due: Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Health Affairs will publish a theme issue on Health and the Environment in May 2011.

We invite submissions of papers that inform policymakers about environmental dimensions of health and their impact on individual and population health, health disparities, and health care costs.

We particularly seek submissions that illuminate problems AND recommend thoughtful and effective policy responses for federal, state and local policymakers.

Papers should be submitted to Health Affairs by December 15, 2010 at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ha

Papers will be considered for inclusion in the theme issue as well as in subsequent issues of the journal.

The theme issue of Health Affairs will explore the current state of knowledge about how factors in the natural and built environments – including polluted air or water, chemicals, and climate change -- affect human health.

We seek to begin to bridge the gap in understanding between those who have long focused on these environmental contributors to health, and those who have traditionally focused on such areas as health services delivery and financing. The ways in which environmental stressors adversely impact the most vulnerable members of society will also be an important focus of the thematic issue.

We seek to present the latest research on environmental health threats and policies that have worked to minimize or ameliorate them. In particular, we hope to cast a spotlight on regulatory agencies and the regulatory frameworks that guide their actions. We also plan to present case studies of selected health impacts attributable to environmental conditions or aggravated by them. Research papers as well as analyses and commentaries from various viewpoints will be considered for publication.

This issue of Health Affairs is supported by a grant from the Kresge Foundation.

Timetable

The journal welcomes original papers, analyses, and commentaries for the thematic issue by December 15, 2010.
Health Affairs editors and the theme issue advisors (Drs. J. Pete Myers, Kenneth Olden, and Tracey Woodruff) will evaluate submissions and make initial selection of those which warrant further consideration. Health Affairs will publish additional papers on environmental health through 2011.

Papers submitted after December 15, 2010 will be considered for publication in future issues of the journal.

Considering the short timeline, we do not expect all authors to initiate new research, but encourage synthesizing existing work to frame the issues and inform policy discussions and deliberations for an audience that heretofore may not have devoted much thought to environmental health.

Selected papers will be subjected to peer-review by external reviewers in a double blind process which masks the identity of both authors and reviewers. Authors of papers that are determined to be appropriate will be asked to revise their papers in January and February.

Copyediting and production for the issue will take place following that, with publication scheduled for early May 2011.

Submissions requirements

Manuscripts should be submitted via Health Affairs manuscript management system at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ha .

Submissions should not exceed about 3500 words, plus a 100-word abstract, and may include up to 3 exhibits.

Papers should be original submissions not previously published or being considered by other journals.

Details on format and endnotes are available on the Health Affairs website under “Help for Authors”
http://www.healthaffairs.org/1410_for_authors.php

Please contact Mary Rubino, Senior Editor, mrubino@projecthope.org, or
Don Metz, Executive Editor, dmetz@projecthope.org for more information.

Topics

We invite submissions of original quantitative and qualitative research that explore the scientific, societal, and economic aspects of environmental health policy, addressing the following questions and topic areas:

Why should health policymakers care about environmental health?

What are the key drivers/players in environmental health?

How does environmental health impact long term health care costs?

What is the current knowledge base about environment health and policy?

Where are the policy opportunities and obstacles to reduce negative environmental impacts on health?

Air Quality and Health: Asthma, Heart Disease, Cancers

Climate change: Impacts on human health

Chronic Disease: Environmental Contributors and Long Term Costs

Chemical Exposure and Health: Occupational, Fetal, and Lifetime Exposure

Costs and Benefits of Environmental Health Regulation

Food Safety: Reporting and Tracking

Genetic Impacts on Vulnerability

Green Chemistry: Life cycle impacts and costs

Health Disparities and Environmental Justice

International Approaches: What Can We Learn?

Legal Levers: Regulation and the Role of the Courts

Lessons Learned from Lead and Smoking

Ocean Health and Human Health

The Precautionary Principle: Help or Hindrance

Regulatory Intent and Impacts: ToSCA

Water Quality: Risks to Municipal, Ground and Well Water

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[EQ] World Social Security Report 2010/11. Providing coverage in times of crisis and beyond

World Social Security Report 2010/11.
Providing coverage in times of crisis and beyond

UN International Labour Organization (ILO), November 2010

Available online PDF [299p.] at: http://bit.ly/duXsrQ

“….This is the first in a new series of biennial reports that aim to map social security coverage globally, to presenting various methods and approaches for assessing coverage, and to identifying gaps in coverage. Backed by much comparative statistical data, this first report takes a comprehensive look at how countries are investing in social security, how they are financing it, and how effective their approaches are.

The report examines the ways selected international organizations (the EU, OECD and ADB) monitor social protection and the correlation of social security coverage and the ILO Decent Work Indicators.

The report's final section features a typology of national approaches to social security, with a focus on countries' responses to the economic crisis of 2008 -- and the lessons to be learned, especially concerning the short- and long-term management of pension schemes….”

“….. Providing coverage in times of crisis and beyond,” prepared by the UN International Labour Organization (ILO), examines the gaps in access to social security programmes in areas such as health care, pensions, social assistance, and unemployment benefits.

It shows that most of the world’s working age population and their families lack effective access to comprehensive social protection systems.

Worldwide, nearly 40 per cent of the working-age population is legally covered by contributory old-age pension schemes, according to the report.

In North America and Europe, this number is nearly double, while in Africa less than one-third of the working-age population is covered even by legislation. In sub-Saharan Africa, only 5 per cent of the working-age population is effectively covered by contributory programmes, while this share is about 20 per cent in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.

According to the report, social security plays an important role in times of economic crisis, including the current one, as an “irreplaceable economic, social and political stabilizer” that provides income replacement and helps stabilize aggregate demand, without negatively effecting economic growth.

The study also warns that cutting social security due to fiscal consolidation aimed at coping with increased deficits and public debt “may not only directly affect social security beneficiaries and consequently the standards of living of a large portion of the population, but also, through aggregate demand affects, slow down or significantly delay a full economic recovery.”

Well-designed unemployment schemes, social assistance and public works programmes effectively prevent long-term unemployment and help shorten recovery from economic recession, the report states.

Unemployment insurance schemes were the most common type of social protection measures used to respond to the crisis, it adds, while also noting that only 64 out of 184 countries for which information is available had such unemployment schemes in place when the survey started…..”

Content:
Executive summary

Introduction. Context, objectives, scope and structure of the report .

Part I. Monitoring the state of social security coverage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

1 Defi nitions, standards and concepts

1.1 Basic definitions

1.2 The scope of social security as defined by ILO standards and by other international organizations

1.3 Coverage concepts and measurements

2 Scope of social security coverage around the world:Context and overview

2.1 The labour market context

2.2 Scope of comprehensive coverage by statutory schemes

2.3 Effective comprehensive population coverage

3 Social health protection coverage

3.1 Definition and measurement of social health protection

3.2 Financing health care

3.3 Gaps in health-care coverage and access deficits

4 Coverage by social security pensions: Income security in old age .

4.1 From legal to effective coverage by old-age pensions: An overview

4.2 Coverage gaps and employment status of the elderly

4.3 Effective extent and level of coverage at the country level

5 Income support to the unemployed

5.1 Scope of coverage by statutory unemployment schemes

5.2 Effective extent and level of coverage

6 Coverage by other branches of social security .

6.1 Employment injury

6.2 Maternity protection

7 Minimum income support and other social assistance

8 Investments in social security: Amounts, results and efficiency .

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Resources allocated to the financing of social security across the world

8.3 Measuring effectiveness and efficiency of investments in social security:

An overview of approaches in selected international organizations

9 Identifying factors for extended social security coverage

PART II. Thematic focus: Social security in times of crisis

10 Responding to economic crisis with social security

10.1 Introduction

10.2 Cushioning the impacts of unemployment while protecting and creating jobs

10.3 The expansion of social security as a crisis response

10.4 Consolidating social expenditure: Short-term versus long-term concerns

10.5 Impact of the crisis on pension funding: The need to revisit recent pension reforms

10.6 Impact of the crisis on social health protection financing

Conclusion. Closing the coverage gaps and building social security for all

Bibliography

Statistical Annex

Part A. The demographic, economic and labour market environment

Part B. Social security coverage and expenditure





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[EQ] Catalyzing Change: The System Reform Costs of Universal Health Coverage

Catalyzing Change:
The System Reform Costs of Universal Health Coverage

Rockefeller Foundation - November 15, 2010

Available online PDF [98p.] at: http://bit.ly/9O6vst

“….A global movement for universal health coverage (UHC) is under way, as illustrated by an increasing number of nations working toward achieving UHC. Endorsed by the World Health Assembly through a resolution in 2005, UHC is defined as access for all to appropriate health services at an affordable cost. Universal coverage is associated with better health and equity, as well as financial protection.

This new report aims to call health leaders’ attention to the importance and enhanced feasibility of establishing the systems and institutions needed to pursue UHC. It also seeks to quantify the transition costs associated with reforming a health system away from one that relies on out-of-pocket payments and towards one in which health expenditures are more evenly distributed….”

“………Every year health expenses create severe financial hardship for 150 million people and force 25 million households into poverty. This is due largely to the fact that more than three billion people—many of whom are found in the poorest half of the world’s population—pay out of pocket for health services. They are forced to choose between impoverishing fees or foregoing needed services, leaving them at risk of falling into a downward spiral of sickness and poverty.

Yet, paradoxically, in most countries around the world, the total amount of domestic resources devoted to health is increasing at an historically unprecedented rate, in parallel with growing national economies. While large amounts of time and resources have been spent on improving the health of people in low- and middle-income countries, not enough work has been done to help strengthen their health systems and provide access for all to appropriate health services at an affordable cost.

Many countries are beginning to embrace universal health coverage (UHC)— defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as
“access to key promotive, preventive, curative and rehabilitative health interventions for all at an affordable cost, thereby achieving equity in access”—as a viable financing mechanism. Although models for UHC vary by country, governments are reorganizing national health systems to share health costs more equitably across the population and its life cycle, instead of concentrating the burden on the few who face catastrophic illness in any given year.

This timely report addresses a specific question: how much does it cost to shift a health system from being predominantly financed out of pocket toward one that is financed using schemes of universal coverage? Using examples from four countries that have made tremendous strides toward achieving universal coverage, the report puts an approximate price tag on these investments. The conclusions indicate that relatively small early investments can set countries on the path toward universal health coverage.

This information should be useful to those involved in planning reform, as well as the development partners that support them…..”

Content

Foreword

Executive summary

CHAPTER 1 Where the World Stands Today: The Feasibility of Universal Health Coverage

CHAPTER 2 Framework for Planning the Transition

CHAPTER 3 Case Studies: Andhra Pradesh (India), Ghana, Chile, Turkey

CHAPTER 4 Conclusions

ANNEX

Additional Case Studies: Rwanda, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand

Notes

Read related papers:

What must be done to enhance capacity for health systems research?
Sara Bennett, Ligia Paina, Christine Kim, Irene Agyepong, Somsak Chunharas, Di McIntyre, Stefan Nachuk
http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/uploads/files/c4ccb675-f6f8-47de-8552-e032d4c3fc20.pdf

The Long Road to Universal Health Coverage.
Jesse Bump
http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/uploads/files/23e4426f-cc44-4d98-ae81-ffa71c38e073-jesse.pdf

The Missing Link: The Global Fund and Financial Access to Healthcare.
Karen Schmidt
http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/uploads/files/6485982c-b708-4cc5-af99-ef411035a0f4-gfatm-support.pdf

All for Universal Health Coverage.
Laurie Garrett, Mushtaque Chowdhury, Ariel Pablos-Mendez
http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/uploads/files/d86af08f-0ccc-4739-ab2f-ce625450572d-lancet.pdf





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