What to Finance in Health and at What Price? (edX)

Advancing towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) - or in other words, achieving access to health services for the entire population without causing financial hardship - is in everyone's interest and one of the great Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030, set out by the United Nations (UN) and signed by many countries.

However, to achieve this, countries face an enormous challenge: which services and health technologies should be financed for the population, and how can UHC be achieved with the available public resources? All this taking into account that in all nations, whether rich or poor, resources are insufficient to cover all the needs of the people.

For this reason, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) through its Criteria Network , in alliance with the Center for Global Development (CGD) , are pleased to present you the course “ What to Finance in Health and at What Price? ”, which discusses the two key strategies to help countries move towards UHC and improve the efficiency of public health spending: explicit priority setting in health and instruments to achieve more affordable prices for medicines.

As we navigate the course, we will learn more about the challenges countries face and the strategies and tools available to support them by some of the best international experts in this area.

Resources are scarce and spending smartly is essential to achieve more health for the population per dollar invested. Are you going to miss out on this opportunity?

Sign up now and… join us!

Who is this course intended for?

- Decision-makers and public officials who work in the areas of health policies and financing of services.

- Specialists in economics, medicine, and the right to health.

- Academics (researchers, teachers, students).

- Opinion leaders.

- Citizens interested in learning about the decision processes and the available policies to improve the effectiveness, quality, and coverage of health services.

This course is "self-paced" so you can enroll at any time, even if the course has been open for a while. You can take it at the time that is most suitable for you inside the enrolment period of the course.

What you'll learn

Identify the economic and social benefits associated with implementing explicit priority setting mechanisms in health and interventions that help obtain more affordable prices for medicines, recognizing their contribution to the goal of achieving universal health coverage (UHC).

Syllabus

Module 1

You will identify why it is important to efficiently manage the gap between the needs of the population, which are infinite, and limited resources, as well as the key factors that have been influencing the increase in health spending.

Module 2

You will learn to recognize why explicit priority setting is a fundamental tool to support countries on the pathway to UHC, as well as its advantages over implicit priority setting.

Module 3

You will take a close look at health benefits plans (HBP), an explicit priority setting tool that allows countries to ensure coverage of the most important services according to the epidemiological profile and preferences of the population.

Module 4

You will recognize the importance of making explicit priority setting decisions based on evidence, using consistent analytical methods. In addition, you will take an in-depth look at some fundamental tools for prioritizing health spending, such as health technology assessment (HTA), cost-effectiveness thresholds, and the costing of prioritized services.

Module 5

You will learn that although the methods are a fundamental ingredient of explicit priority setting, this is not sustainable if it is not accompanied by participatory, transparent, coherent, and consistent processes. These elements of good governance will contribute towards ensuring the legitimacy of the decisions and acceptance by the stakeholders.

Module 6

You will learn that the efficiency of health spending not only depends on what is financed, but also on what is paid for each of the health services and technologies, and that one of the great challenges on the pathway to UHC are precisely the prices that we pay for medicines. What tools can countries use to achieve more affordable prices for medicines? Here you will get an overview of the available strategies, accompanied by examples from countries around the world.