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42. Global Health Security
- Author:
- Gro Harlem Brundtland
- Publication Date:
- 09-2019
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- Columbia University World Leaders Forum
- Abstract:
- This World Leaders Forum program features an address on global health and preparedness by Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, followed by a moderated panel discussion and question and answer session with the audience. As we approach the five-year anniversary of the historic UN Security Council resolution on the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the goal of this panel discussion is to assess global preparedness as the World Health Organization and World Bank deliver their first set of recommendations on the margins of UNGA 2019.
- Topic:
- Development, Health, United Nations, World Health Organization, and Health Care Policy
- Political Geography:
- New York, United Nations, and West Africa
43. Health Literacy in South Asia: Clarifying the Connections between Health Literacy and Wellbeing in Pakistan
- Author:
- Muhammad Abdullah and Rubeena Zakar
- Publication Date:
- 07-2019
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- South Asian Studies
- Institution:
- Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab
- Abstract:
- The objective of the present study is to explore the levels of health literacy among the rural and urban population of Pakistan and its connection with their subjective wellbeing because promoting health and wellbeing for all have been declared as a sustainable development goal by United Nations. The present study used qualitative methods conducting in-depth interviews with male and female population from two districts of the Punjab to achieve study goals. Findings indicated that a low levels of health literacy prevails in rural areas while the case is little different in Urban areas. Health literacy increases the wellbeing of the people while there are some factors like religious and cultural beliefs of the local community about health which affect the wellbeing of the people even in presence of the good health information. Comprehensive and tailored programs for community mobilization and advancing health literacy are recommended to promote health and wellbeing.
- Topic:
- Development, Health, United Nations, World Health Organization, and Health Care Policy
- Political Geography:
- Pakistan, South Asia, and Punjab
44. The Challenges of Universal Health Insurance in Developing Countries: Evidence from a Large-scale Randomized Experiment in Indonesia
- Author:
- Abhijit Banerjee, Amy Finkelstein, Rema Hanna, Benjamin A. Olken, Arianna Ornaghi, and Sudarno Sumarto
- Publication Date:
- 10-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
- Abstract:
- To assess ways to achieve widespread health insurance coverage with financial solvency in developing countries, we designed a randomized experiment involving almost 6,000 households in Indonesia who are subject to a nationally mandated government health insurance program. We assessed several interventions that simple theory and prior evidence suggest could increase coverage and reduce adverse selection: substantial temporary price subsidies (which had to be activated within a limited time window and lasted for only a year), assisted registration, and information. Both temporary subsidies and assisted registration increased initial enrollment. Temporary subsidies attracted lower-cost enrollees, in part by eliminating the practice observed in the no subsidy group of strategically timing coverage for a few months during health emergencies. As a result, while subsidies were in effect, they increased coverage more than eightfold, at no higher unit cost; even after the subsidies ended, coverage remained twice as high, again at no higher unit cost. However, the most intensive (and effective) intervention – assisted registration and a full one-year subsidy – resulted in only a 30 percent initial enrollment rate, underscoring the challenges to achieving widespread coverage.
- Topic:
- Government, Health, Health Care Policy, and Economy
- Political Geography:
- Indonesia and Southeast Asia
45. Testing the Validity of the Single Interrupted Time Series Design
- Author:
- Katherine Baicker and Theodore Svoronos
- Publication Date:
- 07-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
- Abstract:
- Given the complex relationships between patients’ demographics, underlying health needs, and outcomes, establishing the causal effects of health policy and delivery interventions on health outcomes is often empirically challenging. The single interrupted time series (SITS) design has become a popular evaluation method in contexts where a randomized controlled trial is not feasible. In this paper, we formalize the structure and assumptions underlying the single ITS design and show that it is significantly more vulnerable to confounding than is often acknowledged and, as a result, can produce misleading results. We illustrate this empirically using the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment, showing that an evaluation using a single interrupted time series design instead of the randomized controlled trial would have produced large and statistically significant results of the wrong sign. We discuss the pitfalls of the SITS design, and suggest circumstances in which it is and is not likely to be reliable.
- Topic:
- Health, Governance, and Health Care Policy
- Political Geography:
- North America and United States of America
46. Can Transparency and Accountability Programs Improve Health? Experimental Evidence from Indonesia and Tanzania
- Author:
- Jean Arkedis, Jessica Creighton, Archon Fung, Stephen Kosack, Dan Levy, and Courtney Tolmie
- Publication Date:
- 05-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
- Abstract:
- We assess the impact of a transparency and accountability program designed to improve maternal and newborn health (MNH) outcomes in Indonesia and Tanzania. Co-designed with local partner organizations to be community-led and non-prescriptive, the program sought to encourage community participation to address local barriers in access to high quality care for pregnant women and infants. We evaluate the impact of this program through randomized controlled trials (RCTs), involving 100 treatment and 100 control communities in each country. We find that on average, this program did not have a statistically significant impact on the use or content of maternal and newborn health services, nor the sense of civic efficacy or civic participation among recent mothers in the communities who were offered it. These findings hold in both countries and in a set of prespecified subgroups. To identify reasons for the lack of impacts, we use a mixed-method approach combining interviews, observations, surveys, focus groups, and ethnographic studies that together provide an in-depth assessment of the complex causal paths linking participation in the program to improvements in MNH outcomes. Although participation in program meetings was substantial and sustained in most communities, and most attempted at least some of what they had planned, only a minority achieved tangible improvements and fewer still saw more than one such success. Our assessment is that the main explanation for the lack of impact is that few communities were able to traverse the complex causal paths from planning actions to accomplishing tangible improvements in their access to quality health care.
- Topic:
- Health, Health Care Policy, Children, and Randomized Controlled Trials
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Indonesia, Tanzania, and Southeast Asia
47. Assessing Public Expenditure Governance of the Primary Health Care Programme in Uganda
- Publication Date:
- 01-2019
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE)
- Abstract:
- The need to provide affordable and good quality healthcare is shared by Uganda and many other countries across the world. This is reflected in the third Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 3), which aims “to achieve universal health coverage, and provide access to safe and affordable medicines and vaccines for all.” In domesticating SDG 3, the overall goal of Uganda’s Health Sector Development Plan (HSDP 2015/16 – 2019/20) is to accelerate movement towards Universal Health Coverage with essential health and related services needed for promotion of a healthy and productive life. The provision of universal health coverage is what has come to be defined as Primary Health Care (PHC) in many countries globally.
- Topic:
- Development, Health, Governance, Health Care Policy, and Sustainable Development Goals
- Political Geography:
- Uganda and Africa
48. WHO Technical Report on Cancer Pricing Misses the Mark—It Should Focus on the “Demand Side”
- Author:
- Kalipso Chalkidou, Adrian Towse, and Richard Sullivan
- Publication Date:
- 04-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- Criticising cancer medicine pricing as too high is what football fans know as an "open goal"—a target that is hard to miss. Yet somehow the World Health Organization (WHO) Technical Report on Cancer Pricing manages to do just that with a paper to the WHO Executive Board calling for price and cost transparency. The assumption goes that transparency will reduce the prices and costs of cancer medicines, a mantra that has united the Trump administration, the US Congress, and the Italian health minister with many NGOs who have called for “greater cost and price transparency”—a sentiment echoed by KEI, which states that “international action is required to improve transparency in reporting the costs of R&D and production, including public sources of funding.”
- Topic:
- World Health Organization, Health Care Policy, Medicine, Cancer, and Price
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
49. Modicare Post-Election: Recommendations to Enhance the Impact of Public Health Insurance on UHC Goals in India
- Author:
- Kalipso Chalkidou, Nishant Jain, Françoise Cluzeau, and Amanda Glassman
- Publication Date:
- 05-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- Hailed as one of the largest publicly funded health insurance programs in the world, India’s “Modicare” has, since its launch a little more than six months ago, made universal healthcare coverage an election theme for the first time in the country’s history.[1] In this note, we describe the program, with an emphasis on its better-known secondary and tertiary care component, and offer policy recommendations to strengthen the scheme post-election to enhance its contribution to India’s vision for universal health coverage (UHC). In a country of almost 1.4 billion people that is home to one-third of global maternal deaths, where public spending for health accounts for roughly 1 percent of GDP and where 60 million people fall into poverty every year because of healthcare bills, fixing healthcare is a daunting task that will determine the world’s performance against the Sustainable Development Goals over the coming decade.
- Topic:
- Health, Health Care Policy, Public Health, and Health Insurance
- Political Geography:
- India and Asia
50. Understanding the Opportunity Cost, Seizing the Opportunity: Report of the Working Group on Incorporating Economics and Modelling in Global Health Goals and Guidelines
- Author:
- The Working Group on Incorporating Economics and Modeling in Global Health Goals and Guidelines
- Publication Date:
- 05-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- Internationally set goals and guidelines directly influence the setting of health care priorities at the national level, affecting how limited resources are generated and allocated across health care needs. The influence of global priority setting, such as through the formulation of overarching goals or normative guidelines for specific disease areas, is particularly significant in low- and middle-income countries that rely heavily on overseas development assistance. Because no systematic approach exists for dealing with resource constraints, however, which vary across countries, goals and guidance are often inappropriate for some country contexts; their implementation can, therefore, reduce the efficiency and equity of health care spending. The Working Group on Incorporating Economics and Modelling in Global Health Goals and Guidelines, co-convened by the Center for Global Development, Thanzi la Onse, and the HIV Modelling Consortium, has brought together disease specialists, policymakers, economists, and modelers from national governments, international organizations, and academic institutions across the globe to address these issues, to take stock of current approaches, and make recommendations for better practice. The Working Group deliberated on the roles and purposes of goals and guidelines and considered how economic evidence might be formally incorporated into policy recommendations and health care decision making. The target audiences for this report are international health institutions, large stakeholders in disease programs across the world, and national governments.
- Topic:
- Development, Health, Health Care Policy, and Public Health
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus