A Briefing paper: Healthcare Cost

The means of financing healthcare, perhaps more than any other aspect of a healthcare system, mirror the values and priorities of a society. As was noted above, unlike the case in the majority of the OECD countries, healthcare financing in the United States is mostly private.

Background

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines universal healthcare coverage as “access to key promotive, preventive, curative and rehabilitative health interventions for all at an affordable cost, thereby achieving equity in access.” Under this definition, a population is said to enjoy universal healthcare if every member of that population is able to ...