HEALTH SYSTEM FINANCING, ORGANIZATION, AND DELIVERY
Ensure financing access to medically necessary and medically appropriate care for everyone as efficiently as possible
WHAT IS IT?
We need a moral and economic framework for understanding health system financing, organization and delivery. An efficient and equitable approach to health system financing, organization and delivery will help ensure high quality access to medically necessary and medically appropriate care for everyone.
These systems must protect individuals from health-related financial burdens that could inhibit their ability to flourish. Effective health system financing, organization and delivery is essential for human flourishing. It prioritizes individual health functioning, health agency, and security, while also protecting people from the detrimental effects of health care costs.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
Health care costs can have devastating impacts on individuals, households and the society and economy at large. Current approaches are limited in scope, accounting for catastrophic and out-of-pocket expenditures, but we need to consider people’s health and economic security.
We need a broader, multidimensional framework to health system financing, organization and delivery that understands the larger context of health spending. In order to prevent and mitigate the impact of health care costs, we need to understand how individuals and households of varying health and socioeconomic levels fare when confronting a health need.
WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?
Everyone deserves access to high quality, evidence-based health resources. This approach means that community-rated, progressively financed universal health insurance is fundamental and a moral and economic imperative.
To ensure everyone access to medically necessary and medically appropriate care, everyone must have universal financial protection.
HOW DO WE DO IT?
Researchers should further study the effects of health costs on people of varying health and socioeconomic experiences and types of health treatment. This will allow for a fuller, more comprehensive view of health cost burdens and how they are distributed among the population. For example, financial toxicity among cancer patients is a growing burden that impacts their ability to not only seek access to medical care, but also basic needs such as food, housing, and travel.
Universal financial protection requires a commitment among the healthier and wealthier, effectuated through public policy, to solidify these guarantees for the structurally disadvantaged and excluded. Health insurance financing needs to be progressive - risks must be pooled equitably and efficiently - and requires a redistribution through taxation and spending. Individuals and groups with higher wealth should pay a greater share than lower-income individuals on a sliding scale. This will most equitably and efficiently support health care costs and create security for individuals and households.