Characterizing key misconceptions of equity in health financing for universal health coverage.

Fairness or equity in health financing is critical to ensuring universal health coverage (UHC). While equity in health financing is generally about financing health services according to ability-to-pay, misconceptions exist among policymakers, decision-makers and some researchers about what constitutes financing health services according to ability-to-pay or an equitably financed health system. This commentary characterizes three misconceptions of equitable health financing-(1) the misconception of fair contribution, (2) the pro-poor misconception and (3) the misconception of cross-subsidization. The paper also uses these misconceptions to clearly illustrate what constitutes equity in health financing, highlighting the importance of income distribution. The misconceptions come from the authors' extensive engagements with policymakers and practitioners, especially in Africa. A clear understanding of equity in health financing provides an avenue to significant progress towards UHC and improving a country's income distribution.

Reducing Financial Barriers for Households Due to COVID-19: The Case in India.

As countries all over the world grapple with containing the COVID-19 outbreak, Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) are particularly hard-pressed because on the one hand, the pandemic has created unforeseen high demand for health services which requires increased spending. On the other hand, the contagion and the public health measures taken to curb it have disrupted economies whilst creating additional spending pressures as well. This constrains the policy options available for LMICs to ensure an adequate and sustainable financing for the health sector's COVID-19 response whilst maintaining routine supply of essential health services. Despite this, as demonstrated by India, many LMICs are undertaking many reform efforts to address both the health and economic hardships caused by the pandemic. In this commentary, we describe the policy tools that one such LMIC, India, has used to enable financing for the outbreak.