Resource Type: Brief
Authors: Health Systems 20/20
Published: 10/1/2011

Resource Description:

This brief outlines the Health Systems 20/20 approach to financial risk protection and health insurance. Health Systems 20/20 works with countries and subnational groups to establish or strengthen social health insurance programs, community-based prepayment schemes, voucher programs, conditional cash transfers, and other financial risk protection mechanisms that make health care more affordable. It does this through the following types of activities:

• Increasing understanding among policymakers and implementers of the pros and cons of various financial protection mechanisms;
• Helping to implement mechanisms correctly; and
• Collaborating with international partners to expand financial protection.

In particular, Health Systems 20/20 helps countries ensure that these mechanisms expand the poor’s access to priority services, such as maternal and child health care, that will allow countries to meet the health Millennium Development Goals.