Issues and Challenges of Health Financing

Health financing has many challenges to be faced, including those associated with inadequate funding, equity concerns, system complexity, rising costs, and sustainability problems.

FREMONT, CA: Health system financing has been critical in ensuring equity in the consumption of health services and sustainability in health systems in different countries. At the same time, however, health financing embraces many challenges that influence efficiency in providing care and overall health outcomes for populations. Correctly understanding such challenges becomes very important in devising methods to help alleviate health financing and improve health systems' responsiveness to different populations' needs.

Some significant challenges facing health financing include the need for more sufficient funding. Insufficient financing is where most countries, especially in the low- and middle-income categories, may need more support to invest optimally in their health systems. Lack of adequate funding is a precursor to inadequate access to essential health services and a lack of proper infrastructure and human resources. These can include adverse effects on healthcare quality, unmet needs, more apparent health inequalities, and decreased progress toward universal coverage.

Access to care across socioeconomic groups is still unequal in most health systems worldwide. Poor health financing usually affects most poor communities, which typically brings about unequal health outcomes. The poor health facilities in rural or underprivileged areas might curtail their access to health services. These inequities call for targeted funding strategies and policies that ensure resource distribution addresses the needs of the most vulnerable.