RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 A Financing Strategy to Expand Surgical Health Care
JF Global Health: Science and Practice
JO GLOB HEALTH SCI PRACT
FD Johns Hopkins University- Global Health. Bloomberg School of Public Health, Center for Communication Programs
SP e2100295
DO 10.9745/GHSP-D-21-00295
VO 11
IS 3
A1 Jumbam, Desmond T.
A1 Reddy, Che L.
A1 Meara, John G.
A1 Makasa, Emmanuel M.
A1 Atun, Rifat
YR 2023
UL http://www.ghspjournal.org/content/11/3/e2100295.abstract
AB Key FindingsDespite the strategic efforts taken by numerous low- and middle-income countries to develop national surgical, obstetric, and anesthesia plans (NSOAPs) to address surgical needs at a population level, financing these policies remains a challenge.To address the surgical financing challenge, it is necessary to examine the fiscal space options for financing such policies from the very beginning of policy development and throughout the development process.Key ImplicationsThe proposed surgical health care financing strategy (SHFS) uses an analytic iterative process to identify potential sources of funding, quantify the investment, and mobilize political support for surgical systems at a national level.The SHFS could also help to promote responsibility, accountability, and transparency about financial commitments around funding NSOAPs and other policies designed to improve surgical health care through the implementation of an essential surgical package via universal health coverage.Despite an evolving need to provide surgical health care globally, few health systems, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), can sufficiently provide such care. The vast majority of the world’s people—an estimated 5 billion—are unable to access safe and affordable surgical health care when they need it. This is a significant concern for global public health because the demand for these services is rising with the epidemiological and demographic transitions occurring worldwide. A principal driver of weak surgical health care services is a lack of adequate health system financing for surgical health care. This article examines the financing of surgical health care by analyzing global trends in health system financing, approaches to expand fiscal space for health, and empirical perspectives on the design, introduction, and scale-up of policies to improve surgical systems. We describe a surgical health care financing strategy, together with broader political and economic considerations, to provide policy recommendations to fund the expansion of surgical health care and an essential surgical package as part of universal health coverage in LMICs.