Financial Protection in Health among the Elderly - A Global Stocktake.

Universal Health Coverage is one of the key targets of the Sustainable Development Goals and it implies that everyone can access the healthcare they need without suffering financial hardship. In this paper, we use a large set of household surveys to examine if older populations are facing different degrees of financial hardship compared to younger populations. We find that while differences in average age structures between countries are not systematically associated with higher financial risk related to out-of-pocket health expenditures, there are large differences in financial hardship between younger and older households within countries. Households with more elderly members are more likely to face catastrophic and impoverishing out-of-pocket health payments compared to younger households, and this age gradient is stronger for the poorest segments of the population. Making progress toward Universal Health Coverage will require extension and improved targeting of benefit packages and financial protection to meet the health needs of older adults, and especially the poorest and most vulnerable segments of elderly populations.

Child Health Outcome Inequalities in Low and Middle Income Countries.

Prior to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) era, considerable progress was made toward the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) health indicators. Despite these achievements, many countries failed to meet the MDG target levels, between-country inequalities in health outcomes did not improve, and many countries making progress in average indicator levels did so while at the same time seeing increasing within-country inequalities. We build on the existing literature documenting levels and trends in health inequalities by expanding the number of data-points under focus, and we contribute to this literature by analyzing the extent to which inequalities in child health outcomes are related to socioeconomic inequalities, and to aggregate income growth. The objective of this paper is to examine long-run trends in average population levels and within-country inequalities for two child health outcomes-the under-five mortality rate (U5MR) and stunting-in 102 countries across 6 regions. We find that only about a third of countries in our sample managed to both reduce U5MR levels and inequalities, and only a quarter did so for stunting. The fact that inequality in service coverage seems to follow a more favorable trend than inequality in health outcomes suggests that policies aiming to reduce health inequities should not only foster more equitable service coverage but also focus on the social determinants of health. Moreover, there is no strong correlation between changes in health inequalities and income growth, suggesting that income generating development policies alone will typically not suffice to improve health outcomes and reduce health inequalities.

A comprehensive assessment of universal health coverage in 111 countries: a retrospective observational study.

BACKGROUND: The goal of universal health coverage (UHC) requires that everyone receive needed health services, and that families who get needed services do not suffer undue financial hardship. Tracking progress towards UHC requires measurement of both these dimensions, and a way of trading them off against one another. METHODS: We measured service coverage by a weighted geometric average of four prevention indicators (antenatal care, full immunisation, and screening for breast and cervical cancers) and four treatment indicators (skilled birth attendance, inpatient admission, and treatment for acute respiratory infection and diarrhoea), financial protection by the incidence of catastrophic health expenditures (those exceeding 10% of household consumption or income), and a country's UHC performance as a geometric average of the service coverage index and the complement of the incidence of catastrophic expenditures. Where possible, we adjusted service coverage for inequality, penalising countries with a high level of inequality. The bulk of data used in this study were from the World Bank's Health Equity and Financial Protection Indicators database (2019 version), comprising data from household surveys. Gaps in the data were supplemented with other survey data and (where necessary) non-survey data from other sources (administrative, modelled, and imputed data). FINDINGS: A low incidence of catastrophic expenses sometimes reflects low service coverage (often in low-income countries) but sometimes occurs despite high service coverage (often in high-income countries). At a given level of service coverage, financial protection also varies. UHC index scores are generally higher in higher-income countries, but there are variations within income groups. Adjusting the UHC index for inequality in service coverage makes little difference in some countries, but reduces it by more than 10% in others. Seven of the 12 countries for which we were able to produce trend data have increased their UHC index over time (with the greatest average yearly increases seen in Ghana [1·43%], Indonesia [1·85%], and Vietnam [2·26%]), mostly by improving both financial protection and service coverage. Some increased their UHC index, despite reductions in financial protection, by substantially increasing their service coverage. The UHC index decreased in five of 12 countries with trend data, mostly because financial protection worsened with stagnant or declining service coverage. Our UHC indicators (except inpatient admissions) are significantly and positively associated with GDP per capita, and most are correlated with the share of health spending channelled through social health insurance and government schemes. However, associations of our UHC indicators with the share of GDP spent on health and the shares of health spending channelled through non-profit and private insurance are ambiguous. INTERPRETATION: Progress towards UHC can be tracked using an index that captures both service coverage and financial protection. Although per-capita income is a good predictor of a country's UHC index score, some countries perform better than others in the same income group or even in the income group above their own. Strong UHC performance is correlated with the share of a country's health budget that is channelled through government and social health insurance schemes. FUNDING: None.

Progressive universalism? The impact of targeted coverage on health care access and expenditures in Peru.

Like other countries seeking a progressive path to universalism, Peru has attempted to reduce inequalities in access to health care by granting the poor entitlement to tax-financed basic care without charge. We identify the impact of this policy by comparing the target population's change in health care utilization with that of poor adults already covered through employment-based insurance. There are positive effects on receipt of ambulatory care and medication that are largest among the elderly and the poorest. The probability of getting formal health care when sick is increased by almost two fifths, but the likelihood of being unable to afford treatment is reduced by more than a quarter. Consistent with the shallow coverage offered, there is no impact on use of inpatient care. Neither is there any effect on average out-of-pocket health care expenditure, but medical spending is reduced by up to 25% in the top quarter of the distribution. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Long-run effects of fetal influenza exposure: evidence from Switzerland.

In this paper we estimate long-run effects of fetal exposure to the 1918/19 influenza pandemic for a European country. Using data from the 1970 Swiss census, we find that the male 1919 cohort that had a strongly increased likelihood of fetal exposure to the pandemic performs significantly worse in terms of educational attainment and has a lower chance of marriage than the surrounding cohorts. Further, we find similar results when we in addition use regional differences in influenza severity to test for the impact of influenza on later-life outcomes. A set of robustness tests confirm our findings.

Effects of prenatal and early life malnutrition: evidence from the Greek famine.

This paper examines the long run education and labor market effects from early-life exposure to the Greek 1941-1942 famine. Given the short duration of the famine, we can separately identify the famine effects for cohorts exposed in utero, during infancy and at 1 year of age. We find that adverse outcomes due to the famine are largest for infants. Further, in our regression analysis we exploit the fact that the famine was more severe in urban than in rural areas. Consistent with our prediction, we find that urban-born cohorts show larger negative impacts on educational outcomes than rural-born cohorts.