Publications

Universal health coverage ensures affordable access to high-quality health services for all; this will inevitably require governments to find additional budgetary resources and therefore to increase the fiscal space for health. While there are a number of ways of increasing health sector resources, such as mobilizing additional domestic resources when the macroeconomic conditions are conducive, increasing the priority of health in the public budget or relying on donor aid, recent attention has been directed to increasing the efficiency of the use of health resources. This is due partly to the fact that countries are increasingly obliged to contain growth in health spending as a result of rapidly ageing populations, growing burdens of noncommunicable disease and co-morbid conditions, technological progress and rising population expectations (1). In addition, fiscal crises in advanced economies and overextended governments in low- and middle-income economies make efficiency in health care delivery a pressing concern globally.