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Past Event
Alternative Health Financing in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Pablo Gottret, Senior Health Economist, World Bank;
Marty Makinen, Vice-President, International Health, Abt Associates; and
Hugh Waters, Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Due to the generally unpredictable nature of illness and the burden of high health care costs, risk-pooling is beneficial to cover the needs of those who become ill. It allows populations to make contributions to a central fund in times of good health and/or relative resource abundance in order to cover the health needs of the community-whether that entails preventive medicine, maternal healthcare, sick visits, or catastrophic coverage. Ideally, these central pools would finance services for the poorest and provide the entire group with financial protection and improved health care. However, many different health financing schemes have been used in developing countries, with varying degrees of success. Join us for a discussion of health financing in low- and middle-income countries with Pablo Gottret, senior economist for health in the Human Development Network at the World Bank, Marty Makinen, fellow and vice president of international health practice at Abt Associates, and Hugh Waters, assistant professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Gottret will present an overview of small- and large-scale health financing schemes, while Makinen will address African systems and Waters will examine Latin American systems.
Event Sponsors
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Maternal Health Initiative
Despite global attention and calls to action, women continue to die while giving birth. The Maternal Health Initiative (MHI) leads the Wilson Center’s work on maternal health, global health equity, and gender equality. MHI works to connect issues critical to global health and women’s empowerment to foreign policy and US leadership, with a focus on improving the lives of women, adolescents, and children around the world. Through collaborations with policymakers, academia, donors, and practitioners, MHI produces cutting-edge research, fosters cross-sectoral engagement, increases awareness of key issues, and informs US leadership on solutions for ending maternal and newborn deaths and addressing gender-based global health issues. Read more
Africa Program
The Africa Program works to address the most critical issues facing Africa and US-Africa relations, build mutually beneficial US-Africa relations, and enhance knowledge and understanding about Africa in the United States. The Program achieves its mission through in-depth research and analyses, public discussion, working groups, and briefings that bring together policymakers, practitioners, and subject matter experts to analyze and offer practical options for tackling key challenges in Africa and in US-Africa relations. Read more
Latin America Program
The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action. Read more