The World Health Organization in collaboration with OECD and GFF organized a pre-congress session during the iHEA, Health Economics in Time of Global Change.

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered radical changes all over the globe in how societies and economies are evolving. The health systems are the most affected sector for its coping with the pandemic in the emergency, and evolving in a medium- and long-term perspective, with new actors, new priorities and interventions, new socioeconomic contexts and new fiscal and political landscape. Resilience and sustainability are key for future health systems for responding to pandemics and to sustain the essential services during the emergency.

Tracking health spending provides strategic information for decision-making. It is also a powerful tool to enable transparency and accountability. During the COVID-19 pandemic, comprehensive and timely data of health expenditure is essential for understanding the system dynamic in coping with the pandemic, sustaining essential services and guiding the future investments in health systems.

The pre-congress session provided a timely opportunity to interact among policy makers, researchers, health accounts experts and health security / preparedness experts on:

  • What are the policy questions that can be answered by expenditure data during the COVID-19 pandemic?
  • How much countries spend on COVID-19 and on which activities?
  • What are the changes of overall health expenditure patterns in a country during the COVID-19 pandemic?
  • Did health financing system structures have an impact on how quick countries were able to mobilize resources?
  • To what extent were budget commitments made during the pandemic implemented?
  • What are the further efforts needed in data collection, analysis and interpretation?

 

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