Room | : | Bangkok Convention A, FL.22 |
The world has advanced towards UHC, but not fast enough. More than half the world’s population still does not have access to a basic package of health services, and more than 100 million individuals annually are impoverished due to high out-of-pocket (OOP) spending. Political commitment is the first step to mobilize more funding. Health can be a winning argument to raise more revenues in a pro-health and pro-poor manner. But countries also need to achieve more health for the money, i.e. to use the funds efficiently and equitably. It is essential to encourage and learn from new approaches, such as those involving digital, technological, financial and social innovations to raise and use funds for UHC. Progress requires consolidating and expanding existing strategies that reflect principles of good practice, while managing the political as well as technical challenges to implementation. The SAFE (Sustainable, Adequate, Fair, Efficient) approach to health financing offers useful guidance for the way forward.
The plenary session will introduce the subtheme and set the stage for the following parallel sessions by (a) conveying key technical messages on health financing; (b) framing a debate among high-level panelists representing different stakeholders and thematic viewpoints, and (c) eliciting reactions and responses from the audience.