Defining a Health Benefits Package: What Are the Necessary Processes?. Issue 1 (2nd January 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Glassman, Amanda; Giedion, Ursula; Sakuma, Yuna; Smith, Peter C.
• Is Part Of: Health systems and reform. Volume 2:Issue 1(2016)
• Page Start: 39
• Page End: 50
• Publication Date: 2016-01-02
• Subjects: evidence -- health benefits package -- health economics -- health policy -- health systems -- health systems financing -- health systems management -- priority setting -- universal health coverage; Health care reform -- Periodicals; 362.1042
• DOI: 10.1080/23288604.2016.1124171
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2328-8604

Abstract

Abstract : Abstract— There is immense interest worldwide in the notion of universal health coverage (UHC). A major policy focus in moving toward UHC has been on the key policy question: what services should be made available and under what conditions? In this article we are concerned with how a feasible set of UHC services can be explicitly defined to create what is commonly known as a "health benefits package" (HBP), a set of services that can be feasibly financed and provided under the actual circumstances in which a given country finds itself. We explain why an explicit statement of the HBP is important and then describe a framework that includes ten core elements that are indispensable if a coherent and sustainable process for setting the HBP is to be established.