Health Insecurity and Social Protection: Pathways, Gaps, and Their Implications on Health Outcomes and Poverty

Document Type : Debate

Author

Centre for Applied Health Research & Delivery (CAHRD), Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, UK

Abstract

Health insecurity has emerged as a major concern among health policy-makers particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). It includes the inability to secure adequate healthcare today and the risk of being unable to do so in the future as well as impoverishing healthcare expenditure. The increasing health insecurity among 150 million of the world’s poor has moved social protection in health (SPH) to the top of the agenda among health policy-makers globally. This paper aims to provide a debate on the potential of social protection contribution to addressing health insecurity, poverty, and vulnerability brought by healthcare expenditure in low-income countries, to explore the gaps in current and proposed social protection measures in healthcare and provide suggestions on how social protection intervention aimed at addressing health insecurity, poverty, and vulnerability may be effectively implemented.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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History

  • Receive Date: 19 June 2015
  • Revise Date: 21 November 2015
  • Accept Date: 22 November 2015
  • First Publish Date: 01 March 2016

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