1 March 2021 Health Assistance During Crises Three

Transcript:1 March 2021 Health Assistance During Crises Three:
1 March 2021 Health Assistance During Crises Three barriers we have to consider when thinking about health interventions and ensuring quality of health services: Availability Accessibility and, Affordability 2 Health Assistance During Crises Principles: Essential health services during a humanitarian crisis should be provided free of charge at the point of delivery –UHC Addressing health needs are different and unpredictable In reality: people still have direct as well as indirect health expenditures 3 Health Financing Foundation for all financing approaches: Availability of health services from qualified providers Accessibility and affordability – reducing financial barriers to accessing health services, and protection against catastrophic health expenditures 4 Health Financing Supply Side Response Options Coverage under a health insurance fund Purchasing services from providers to deliver prioritised health services (based on inputs, outputs, and performance) Health Equity Funds Demand Side Response Options Vouchers for health services Cash to reimburse costs for services, and/or for indirect costs Using part of MPC for remaining health expenditures (including medication, transport, etc.) Important that we that we don’t inadvertently support an OOP culture which will undermine equitable financing for universal health coverage. Therefore these two finance options should go hand in hand. 5 Using CVA for Health outcomes Cash & Voucher Assistance (CVA) can be useful to improve access to and utilisation of health services in humanitarian settings, by reducing direct and indirect financial barriers and/or by incentivising the use of free preventive services. When health services are available with adequate capacity and quality but user fees are applied, the preferred response option is through provider payment mechanisms, with CTP to be considered complementary to such supply side health financing strategies, and not aim to replace these. CVA cannot solve supply side challenges such as insufficient health facilities or lack of health care workers Current Evidence on CVA and Health Evidence of cash assistance to contribute to health outcomes in humanitarian settings is slowly emerging, particularly on reducing financial barriers to accessing health services. No indication that the evidence from development programs would not apply to humanitarian settings, though adaptation required of implementation and risk management Evidence shows that CVA for health projects with the highest impact are those combined with other health interventions, particularly if it incentivizes policy reform. CVA can effectively reduce the financial cost to the beneficiary of accessing services. CVA can work as incentives for behaviour change and increase service utilisation (vaccination, food