Health Benefits Package Design in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Insights from Disease Control Priorities

PRESENTER

David Watkins, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine and Global Health, University of Washington

HOST

Amanda Glassman, Executive Vice President, CEO of CGD Europe, and Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development

ABOUT THE EVENT

Please join us for this seminar with David Watkins, who will present key findings from Disease Control Priorities: Universal health coverage and intersectoral action for health: findings from Disease Control Priorities, 3rd Edition. Lunch will be provided.

The World Bank’s Disease Control Priorities, Third Edition (DCP3) defines a model concept of essential universal health coverage (EUHC) with 218 interventions that provides a starting point for country-specific analysis of priorities. Assuming steady-state implementation by 2030, EUHC in lower-middle-income countries would reduce premature deaths by an estimated 4.2 million per year. Estimated total costs prove substantial: about 9·1% of (current) gross national income (GNI) in low-income countries and 5.2% of GNI in lower-middle-income countries.

Financing provision of continuing intervention against chronic conditions accounts for about half of estimated incremental costs. For lower-middle-income countries, the mortality reduction from implementing the EUHC can only reach about half the mortality reduction in non-communicable diseases called for by the Sustainable Development Goals. Full achievement will require increased investment or sustained intersectoral action, and actions by finance ministries to tax smoking and polluting emissions and to reduce or eliminate (often large) subsidies on fossil fuels appear of central importance. DCP3 is intended to be a model starting point for analyses at the country level, but country specific cost structures, epidemiological needs, and national priorities will generally lead to definitions of EUHC that differ from country to country.