Brief 14: External and Domestic Health Financing, and the Role of Public vs. Private Domestic Health Funding
By Markus Haacker, Kate Harris, Gesine Meyer-Rath
November 2021
Key Points
- Financing of HIV programmes is more dependent on foreign assistance than health financing in general, which makes them more vulnerable to a slowdown in external funding, in particular during the current phase of increased uncertainty as a result of COVID-19. This situation makes domestic resource generation – through the government or from the private sector – more pertinent.
- Raising resources from increased out-of-pocket spending runs against the principles of the “public health” approach to HIV and moving towards universal health coverage.
- Domestic funding may come from public or private sources. From a public policy perspective, both sources can be assessed in terms of the incidence of taxes or costs borne by households and the degree of risk protection they offer.
- Raising revenues through contributory schemes has become more feasible (owing to reduced unit costs of treatment) but such policies need to consider equity issues, the objective of increasing coverage overall, and a fair distribution of cost
Summary Briefs
The summary briefs provide an overview of three main areas of economic impact.
Master Slide Set
Policy Briefs
The policy briefs provide more detail on the evidence available on each of the topics.
1. The State of Programme Implementation to Reduce HIV Transmission & Aids-Related Mortality
2. Increased Health and Life Prospects and Their Economic Valuation
3. HIV, Population Dynamics and the Labour Force
4. Human Capital
5. Capital and Investment
6. Productivity and Employment of People Living with HIV
7. Economic Growth – Overview
8. Interactions Between HIV and Poverty
9. Disease Burden Across Population Sub-Groups
10. Trade-offs between Allocation to Health and Other Sectors
11. Domestic Public Funding for HIV
12. Trade-offs and Synergies between HIV and Other Health Objectives
13. Assessing Cost Effectiveness Across HIV and Health Interventions
14. External and Domestic Health Financing, and the Role of Public vs. Private Domestic Health Funding
15. Public and Private Provision of Health and HIV Services
16. Trade-offs within the HIV Budget
17. The Economics of HIV and of HIV Programmes in the Era of Covid-19
Brief 14: External and Domestic Health Financing, and the Role of Public vs. Private Domestic Health Funding
By Markus Haacker, Kate Harris, Gesine Meyer-Rath
November 2021
Key Points
- Financing of HIV programmes is more dependent on foreign assistance than health financing in general, which makes them more vulnerable to a slowdown in external funding, in particular during the current phase of increased uncertainty as a result of COVID-19. This situation makes domestic resource generation – through the government or from the private sector – more pertinent.
- Raising resources from increased out-of-pocket spending runs against the principles of the “public health” approach to HIV and moving towards universal health coverage.
- Domestic funding may come from public or private sources. From a public policy perspective, both sources can be assessed in terms of the incidence of taxes or costs borne by households and the degree of risk protection they offer.
- Raising revenues through contributory schemes has become more feasible (owing to reduced unit costs of treatment) but such policies need to consider equity issues, the objective of increasing coverage overall, and a fair distribution of cost
Technical Briefs
The technical briefs provide more detail on the evidence available on each of the topics.
1. The State of Programme Implementation to Reduce HIV Transmission & Aids-Related Mortality
2. Increased Health and Life Prospects and Their Economic Valuation
3. HIV, Population Dynamics and the Labour Force
4. Human Capital
5. Capital and Investment
6. Productivity and Employment of People Living with HIV
7. Economic Growth – Overview
8. Interactions Between HIV and Poverty
9. Disease Burden Across Population Sub-Groups
10. Trade-offs between Allocation to Health and Other Sectors
11. Domestic Public Funding for HIV
12. Trade-offs and Synergies between HIV and Other Health Objectives
13. Assessing Cost Effectiveness Across HIV and Health Interventions
14. External and Domestic Health Financing, and the Role of Public vs. Private Domestic Health Funding
15. Public and Private Provision of Health and HIV Services
16. Trade-offs within the HIV Budget
17. The Economics of HIV and of HIV Programmes in the Era of Covid-19
Wits Health Consortium, University of the Witwatersrand