Europe and Central Asia Knowledge Brief

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This is a regular series of notes highlighting recent analyses, good practices, and lessons learned from the development work program of the World Bank’s Europe and Central Asia Region.

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Redesigning Health Care in ECA : Some Lessons from the UK

2010-06, Marquez, Patricio, Chalkidou, Kalipso, Cutler, Derek, Doyle, Nick

The countries in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) have been struggling to deliver good, affordable health care to their populations. Indeed, life expectancy gains in the region have been significantly lower than in other middle or high-income countries, and in some ECA countries the relative low level of public sector funding to cover the cost of free medical care that is already promised by the governments to their citizens has consistently hindered access to quality services and led to a significant increase in out-of-pocket spending by patients for healthcare. The main challenge now is to redesign health systems to effectively address the changing health needs of the population, chiefly the increase in non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and injuries, as the leading causes of ill-health, premature mortality and disability.

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Action Needed : Spiraling Drug Prices Empty Russian Pockets

2010-02, Marquez, Patricio, Bonch-Osmolovskiy, Mikhail

In large measure, this is due to the relatively low level of public health spending in the country (about 3.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2008) that underlines the significant gap between the constitutional commitment to a range of medical care services and the actual funding to pay for them. While drugs are supposed to be provided to hospital patients free of charge, an estimated 80 percent of inpatients still have to pay part of the costs of their medicines and most outpatients must purchase them from pharmacies. The outpatient drug program under mandatory health insurance covers only around 16 million people (11 percent of the total population in the country), with more than half of them opting to receive cash rather than in-kind benefits under the 2005 'monetization' of prescription drug benefits. Those who continue with the in-kind benefits appear to be the ones greatest in need of drugs. The situation is further aggravated by the country's ineffective enforcement of controls on wholesale and retail mark-ups for medicines. Household expenditure on drugs accounted for about 30 percent of total health expenditure in Russia, as compared to 12 percent in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries in 2008.