Out-of-Pocket and Informal Payment Before and After the Health Transformation Plan in Iran: Evidence from Hospitals Located in Kurdistan, Iran

One of the objetives of the health transformation plan (HTP) in Iran is to reduce out-of-pocket (OOP) payments for inpatient services and eradicate informal payments. The HTP has three phases: the first phase is focused on reducing OOP payments for inpatient services; the second phase is focused on primary healthcare (PHC) and the third phase utilizes an updated relative value units for health services and is focused on the elimination of informal payments. This aim of this study was to determine the OOP payments and the frecuency on informal cash payments to physicians for inpatient services before and after the HTP in Kurdistan province, Iran. 

An assertive, practical, and substantive agenda to catalyse meaningful change

The Lancet Global Health Commission on financing primary health care combines a shared vision with practical guidance on how to align health financing with overall reform strategies that place primary care service delivery at the core. The Commission reinforces key messages that WHO has put forward on health financing reforms to enable progress towards universal health coverage. It then extends these by application to primary care as a critical service delivery element for the progressive realisation of UHC.

WHO's guidance on health financing is crystallised into a framework for regular country assessment to inform policy dialogue. The alignment of the Commission with this guidance is clear, as reflected in the table. While the decision to limit the operational definition of primary health care to service delivery platforms was made for the purposes of the Commission, certain key financing issues merit further attention. We point to these towards the end ...

Challenges, progress, opportunities: European and Central Asian health systems

New WHO studies look at health systems across 14 countries in Europe and Central Asia to reveal how to better invest in the health of millions Allowing policy-makers the chance to compare and collaborate, recent studies from the World Health Organization present countries’ health systems at a glance.

Many citizens in the WHO European Region are fortunate to live in countries where the health system can look after them when they fall ill. But sadly, for millions of others, falling ill means having to choose between paying for medical treatment and paying for food, education and other necessities.

In some countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, more than half of health spending is paid out of pocket when people use health services, rising above 70% in some cases. When government’s public spending for health care is low, households face hardship and financial ruin. This needs to change, and ...

Tracking Universal Health Coverage: 2023 Global monitoring report

The world is off track to make significant progress towards universal health coverage (UHC) (SDG target 3.8) by 2030 as improvements to health services coverage have stagnated since 2015, and the proportion of the population that faced catastrophic levels of out-of-pocket (OOP) health spending has increased.

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