What is fair in financing fairness?
The World Health Report 2000 considers "fair financing" as one of the three goals for assessing the Health Systems Performance. Fair financing cannot be dissociated from equity that implies traditionally getting the services one's needs in return for contributing within one's ability to pay. However, the calculation in the Report considers "fairness of financial contribution" which disregards accessibility to health services. In addition to their disagreement on the concept of fairness, the authors question the validity of the statistical method used. They notice that despite the absence of financial barriers to access health services, the scoring of Lebanon came unsatisfactory. They claim that the health system in Lebanon is rather contributing in redressing the inequity of the fiscal system.
Ministry of Public Health, Beirut, Lebanon. mphealth@cyberia.net.lb
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Ammar
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Kasparian
D005380:Financing, Government; D014943:Global Health; D017048:Health Care Costs; D015276:Health Care Rationing / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000191:economics*; D014944:World Health Organization