IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/hnpdps/89506.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Health Financing Options for Samoa : Challenges and Opportunities

Author

Listed:
  • Ian Anderson

Abstract

Samoa currently faces two important public policy challenges in the health sector. One is to stem, and then reverse, the rapid rise of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The second challenge is to put the country on a health-financing path that is effective, efficient, and financially affordable and sustainable. The two challenges are interconnected. This discussion paper examines eight options to address these challenges. The eight options are the following: (1) increasing government expenditure via higher general taxation; (2) increasing government expenditure via deficit financing; (3) increasing the share of government expenditure to health; (4) increasing external and donor financing; (5) increasing specific taxes; (6) mobilizing additional nongovernment resources via insurance (including social health insurance, and community and private insurance); (7) increasing cost-recovery measures; and (8) increasing efficiency. The paper concludes that the chief opportunity arises from more efficient use of resources already in the health system that are not presently used to maximum effect. Improving technical and allocative efficiency of the existing system has the potential to make a large difference and is technically feasible.

Suggested Citation

  • Ian Anderson, 2013. "Health Financing Options for Samoa : Challenges and Opportunities," Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) Discussion Paper Series 89506, The World Bank.
  • Handle: RePEc:wbk:hnpdps:89506
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2014/07/17/000333037_20140717115439/Rendered/PDF/895060WP0Healt00Box385284B00PUBLIC0.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. William C. Hsiao & R. Paul Shaw, 2007. "Social Health Insurance for Developing Nations," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6860.
    2. McPake, Barbara, 1993. "User charges for health services in developing countries: A review of the economic literature," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 1397-1405, June.
    3. Pablo Gottret & George Schieber, 2006. "Health Financing Revisited : A Practitioner's Guide," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 7094.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ian Anderson, 2014. "Health Financing in Vanuatu : Challenges and Options," Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) Discussion Paper Series 89505, The World Bank.
    2. World Bank, 2014. "Assessment of Health Financing Options : Papua New Guinea," World Bank Publications - Reports 21118, The World Bank Group.
    3. World Bank, 2011. "Philippine Health Sector Review," World Bank Publications - Reports 27397, The World Bank Group.
    4. de Menil, Victoria & Knapp, Martin & McDaid, David & Njenga, Frank Gitau, 2014. "Service use, charge, and access to mental healthcare in a private Kenyan inpatient setting: the effects of insurance," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 56444, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Besstremyannaya, Galina, 2015. "Measuring the effect of health insurance companies on the quality of healthcare systems with kernel and parametric regressions," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 38(2), pages 3-20.
    6. Bruno Nikolic, 2015. "Slovenian Complementary Health Insurance Reform - Dichotomy between the Internal Market and the Social Dimension," DANUBE: Law and Economics Review, European Association Comenius - EACO, issue 4, pages 205-216, December.
    7. Zhiyuan Hou & Ellen Van de Poel & Eddy Van Doorslaer & Baorong Yu & Qingyue Meng, 2014. "Effects Of Ncms On Access To Care And Financial Protection In China," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(8), pages 917-934, August.
    8. Rinshu Dwivedi & Jalandhar Pradhan & Ramesh Athe, 2021. "Measuring catastrophe in paying for healthcare: A comparative methodological approach by using National Sample Survey, India," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(5), pages 1887-1915, September.
    9. Patrick Sakdapolrak & Thomas Seyler & Christina Ergler, 2013. "Burden of direct and indirect costs of illness: Empirical findings from slum settlements in Chennai, South India," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 13(2), pages 135-151, April.
    10. Bryndová, Lucie & Hroboň, Pavel & Tulejová, Henrieta, 2019. "The 2018 risk-adjustment reform in the Czech Republic: Introducing Pharmacy-based Cost Groups and strengthening reinsurance," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(8), pages 700-705.
    11. Adam Wagstaff, 2010. "Social health insurance reexamined," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(5), pages 503-517, May.
    12. Deininger, Klaus & Mpuga, Paul, 2004. "Economic and Welfare Effects of the Abolition of Health User Fees : Evidence from Uganda," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3276, The World Bank.
    13. Gertler, Paul J. & Hammer, Jeffrey S., 1997. "Strategies for pricing publicly provided health services," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1762, The World Bank.
    14. Sameera Awawda & Mohammad Abu-Zaineh & Bruno Ventelou, 2019. "Who Bears the Burden of Universal Health Coverage? An Assessment of Alternative Financing Policies Using an Overlapping generations General Equilibrium Model," Working Papers 1335, Economic Research Forum, revised 21 Aug 2019.
    15. Mathauer, Inke & Nicolle, Emmanuelle, 2011. "A global overview of health insurance administrative costs: what are the reasons for variations found?," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(2), pages 235-246.
    16. Galina Besstremyannaya, 2014. "Urban inequity in the performance of social health insurance system: evidence from Russian regions," Working Papers w0204, Center for Economic and Financial Research (CEFIR).
    17. Maia Sieverding & Cynthia Onyango & Lauren Suchman, 2018. "Private healthcare provider experiences with social health insurance schemes: Findings from a qualitative study in Ghana and Kenya," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(2), pages 1-22, February.
    18. Aditya Goenka & Lin Liu, 2020. "Infectious diseases, human capital and economic growth," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 70(1), pages 1-47, July.
    19. Smith, Peter C., 2005. "User charges and priority setting in health care: balancing equity and efficiency," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 1018-1029, September.
    20. Saleema Razvi & Amir Ullah Khan, 2015. "Health Financing in South Asia—The Role of Public–Private Partnerships," South Asian Survey, , vol. 22(1), pages 15-36, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    addiction; administrative costs; adolescents; alcohol consumption; allocation; allocation of resources; allocative efficiency; Annual Report; Antenatal care; Article; ... See More + budget documents; budget outlook; burden of disease; cancer patient; cancer patients; capital costs; cardiovascular diseases; central bank; child health; chlamydia; clinical services; clinics; communicable diseases; cost of services; cost of treatment; cost recovery; cost sharing; cost-effectiveness; cost-recovery; costs of health care; counseling; curative health care; deaths; debt; deficit financing; dental care; determinants of health; diabetes; diets; disasters; doctors; donor assistance; donor financing; economic downturns; economic growth; economic shocks; economies of scale; employment; essential drugs; essential health care; exchange rates; external shocks; families; family planning; Finance Ministry; financial barriers; financial cost; financial health; financial management; financial management systems; financial protection; financial resources; financial risk; financial risk protection; financial sector; financial statements; financial years; fiscal deficit; food security; foreign exchange; Foreign loans; gallstones; general taxation; girls' education; government expenditure; health behavior; health care; health care access; health care expenditure; health care providers; health care resources; health care system; health care­service delivery; health effects; health expenditure; health expenditure per capita; health expenditures; health facilities; HEALTH FINANCING; health funding; health information; health insurance; health interventions; Health Organization; health outcome; health outcomes; health plan; health professionals; health promotion; health resources; health sector; Health Service; health services; Health Specialist; health spending; health status; health system; HEALTH SYSTEMS; health workforce; health-care; health-care costs; HEALTH-FINANCING; health-financing system; high blood pressure; hospital admissions; hospital buildings; hospitals; household income; Human Development; human resources; hygiene; hypertension; illness; immunization; income; income countries; income distribution; income groups; income growth; infant mortality; infant mortality rate; infants; infectious diseases; inflation; Influenza; infrastructure projects; injuries; inpatient care; insurance; Life expectancy; Life expectancy at birth; living standards; local currency; low income; low-income countries; macroeconomic variables; marijuana; market failures; medical care; medical supplies; Medical Treatment; medicines; Medium-Term Expenditure; Medium-Term Expenditure Framework; Mental Health; midwifery; Ministry of Finance; monetary policies; mortality; national budgets; national health; National Health Service; National Health Services; natural disasters; Nurses; Nursing; Nutrition; Obesity; output levels; palliative care; patient; Patient treatment; patients; performance framework; pharmacy; physical activity; physicians; pocket payment; polio; postnatal care; price elasticities; private health insurance; private insurance; private pharmacies; private sector; programs; provider payment; public expenditure; Public Expenditure on Health; public health; public health care; public health interventions; public health services; public health system; public provision; public sector; quality of health; quality of services; reform agenda; rehabilitation; risk factors; sanitation; screening; sector policies; sexually transmitted infections; smoking; Social Development; social health insurance; STIs; structural reforms; suicide; surgery; Total expenditure; traditional health care; treatment; tuberculosis; uncertainty; under-five mortality; vaccination; vaccinations; wounds;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wbk:hnpdps:89506. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Erika L. Yanick (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.