Economics of Global Health

Population health and economic development are directly dependent on each other, as good health facilitates productivity and higher incomes enable better nutrition and care seeking. The design of health systems financing can impact the distribution of economic gains and health risks in a population. Further, the human and financial resources available for health provision are limited and some priority setting will be inevitable. After describing the relationship between population health and economic development, this chapter evaluates the main mechanisms for health systems financing and considers the potentially impoverishing effect of health spending in many contexts. Finally, the efficiency of systems is considered, with a focus on incentivising health workers through appropriate payment systems, reducing waste and selecting the highest priority health interventions.