PharmAccess mobilizes public and private resources for the benefit of doctors and patients through clinical standards and quality improvements, loans for healthcare providers, health insurance, mHealth innovations and operational research.
The report, compiled with among others insights from a broad range of experts including two PharmAccess directors, examines the challenges and opportunities countries face as they attempt to improve access to high-quality healthcare.
Global Access to Healthcare: Building sustainable health systems, is an Economist Intelligence Unit report that provides a snapshot in time of the way in which health systems around the world are coping with the most pressing challenges they are facing. It is based on the findings of a global index of 60 countries, additional desk research and the insights from 15 in-depth interviews with a range of senior healthcare experts, including PharmAccess Group CEO Onno Schellekens and Director Advisory Services Ewout Irrgang.
Access to healthcare is a key topic of debate worldwide. Countries are facing a range of healthcare challenges, from rising numbers of patients with multiple chronic diseases amid population ageing to providing access to new and innovative treatments that are also cost-effective. Healthcare systems must reconcile these challenges against a backdrop of already stretched budgets. As a result, the ability of populations to access the healthcare they need is increasingly under the spotlight.
The inportance of trust
One of the key findings is that political will and a social compact are prerequisites for both access and sustainable health systems. ‘Access and provision are determined by the trust that people have in the state. The more people trust, the more they are willing to pay for one another,’ the report quotes PharmAccess CEO Onno Schellekens. ‘If you are not willing to pay for the poor, you will perform worse than other countries with a similar level of development.’
‘Sustainability, for both developing countries and OECD countries, is to a very large extent determined by the willingness to pre-pay, which is determined by the trust that people have in the state,’ Schellekens says. ‘The higher the trust, the lower the cost, the greater the willingness to pay for each other in the future.’
Click here to read the full white paper.
The Economist Intelligence Unit also produced a regional summary paper on Access to Healthcare in Africa and the Middle East.
