About

Universal health coverage (UHC) is about ensuring that all people have access to the health services they need while also ensuring that the use of these services does not expose the user to financial hardship. Equitable health financing is a critical component of UHC. Such reforms can improve the health and financial risk protection of people around the world, especially poor and vulnerable populations.

A growing number of countries are making commitments to UHC and designing and implementing related health financing reforms.  The Equitable Health Financing tool can assist policymakers, practitioners, researchers, civil society and other stakeholders to easily navigate the evidence on different health financing methods and their impact on common health systems goals.

Methods

The Equitable Health Financing tool is based on a systematic review of the literature, followed by a thematic analysis to summarise the impact of seven common health financing mechanisms on five common health system goals: Increase use, improve quality, promote equity, generate revenue and reduce poverty. Eleven country indicators were used to provide information on the relevance of each study to a user's context. The e-tool provides graphical summaries that allow a user to assess with a single snapshot: the number of relevant studies available in the literature, the heterogeneity of evidence, where key evidence is lacking and how closely the evidence matches their own context.

Click here to learn more about the methodology.

To find out more about the review of the evidence please contact Lara Brearley.