79077 - Health Economics and Policy in Low and Middle Income Countries

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student is provided with an overview of: A. how health economics theory and methods can be applied to understand the challenges facing health systems in low and middle income countries; B. the patterns and key issues of health systems and policies in developing countries, with an emphasis on critical assessment of current and future policy options. By the end of the course students are able to: 1. Appreciate the relevance of applying health economics methods in low and middle income countries; 2. Assess alternative methods of raising revenue to funding health systems in low and middle income countries; 3. Assess equity of access to health services and how health system can identify and respond to health inequities; 4. Assess policy options to improve health systems performance in low and middle income countries; 5. Adopt a systematic view on health and health systems in developing countries, and develop independent thinking on future perspective of health sector reforms.

Course contents

Program

• The relationship between health and economic development and the evolving role of health in global development policies
• Global health financing - Development Assistance for Health and innovative financing mechanisms
• Health systems financing – revenue collection and pooling arrangements
• Global Burden of Disease - Planning & priority setting using burden of disease concepts
• Methods assessment of Comparative Effectiveness of Health Interventions
• Cost-effectiveness and assessment of Health Interventions
• Evaluation of the Equity Impact of Health Interventions

Readings/Bibliography

1. The world health report - Health systems financing: the path to universal coverage. World Health Organization 2010 http://www.who.int/whr/2010/en/index.html
2. R. Moreno-Serra, P.C. Smith (2012) “Does progress towards universal health coverage improve population health?”, The Lancet, Volume 380, Issue 9845 [http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01406736/380/9845], 8–14 September 2012, Pages 917–923
3. Vassalll A, Martínez-Álvarez M. Chapter 9: The Health system and external financing. In: Richard D. Smith and Kara Hanson (ed).Health Systems in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: An economic and policy perspective. Oxford University Press, 2012.
4. Kassebaum, Nicholas J et al. Global, regional, and national disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) for 315 diseases and injuries and healthy life expectancy (HALE), 1990–2015: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015The Lancet , Volume 388 , Issue 10053 , 1603 – 1658. http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(16)31460-X/fulltext
5. GBD 2013 DALYs and HALE Collaborators (2015).Global, regional, and national disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for 306 diseases and injuries and healthy life expectancy (HALE) for 188 countries, 1990-2013: quantifying the epidemiological transition. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26321261] Lancet. 2015 Aug 27. pii: S0140-6736(15)61340-X. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(15)61340-X.
6. Cashin, Cheryl. 2016. Health Financing Policy: The Macroeconomic, Fiscal, and Public Finance Context. World Bank Studies. Washington, DC: World Bank.. doi:10.1596/978-1-4648-0796-1. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/394031467990348481/Health-financing-policy-the-macroeconomic-fiscal-and-public-finance-context
7. Bailey T.C., Merritt M.W., Tediosi F.(2015) Investing in Justice: Ethics, Evidence, and the Eradication Investment Cases for Lymphatic Filariasis and Onchocerciasis. Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print February 25, 2015: e1–e8. doi: http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdfplus/10.2105/AJPH.2014.302454
8. Galactionova K, Tediosi F, de Savigny D, Smith T, Tanner M (2015) Effective coverage and systems effectiveness for malaria case management in Sub-Saharan African countries. PLoS One 10, e0127818-. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0127818 [http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0127818]
9. Baeten SA, Baltussen RM, Uyl-de Groot CA, Bridges J, Niessen LW. Incorporating equity-efficiency interactions in cost-effectiveness analysis-three approaches applied to breast cancer control. Value Health. 2010 Aug;13(5):573-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1524-4733.2010.00718.x. Epub 2010 Mar 31.
10. Ekdom van L, Stenberg K, Scherpbier RW, Niessen LW, and CAH group for child health cost validation.Investments needs for scaling-up child survival interventions to reach MDG4 – country-level validation of global cost estimates. Bulletin of WHO 2011.
11. Kruijshaar ME, Barendregt JJ, Hoeymans N.: The use of models in the estimation of disease epidemiology. Bull World Health Organ. 2002;80(8):622-8.
12. Mirelman A1, Mentzakis E, Kinter E, Paolucci F, Fordham R, Ozawa S, Ferraz M, Baltussen R, Niessen LW. Decision-making criteria among national policymakers in five countries: a discrete choice experiment eliciting relative preferences for equity and efficiency. Value Health. 2012 May;15(3):534-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jval.2012.04.001.
13. Niessen LW, Khan JA. Universal access to medicines. Lancet. 2016 Jan 2;387(10013):9-11. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(15)00552-8. Epub 2015 Oct 20.
14. Reidpath DD, Morel CM, Mecaskey JW, Allotey P. The Millennium Development Goals fail poor children: the case for equity-adjusted measures. PLoS Med. 2009 Apr 28;6(4).

Teaching methods

The course is structured in lectures, individual presentations, group work presentations and case studies.

Assessment methods

Group work module I (25%

Group work module II (25%)

Assignment (50%)

Office hours

See the website of Fabrizio Tediosi

See the website of Louis Wilhelmus Niessen