1.H. Round table: How can we strengthen planning for health and universal health coverage in the 21st century?
Authors:   Organised by: Karolinska Institute (Sweden),   Chair persons: Birger Forsberg (Sweden)
Published: October 2023

Universal health coverage (UHC) is one of the most important goals to improve health and health service delivery for entire populations. It is thus high on the agenda in most high- as well as middle and low-income countries globally. However, for UHC to be successful in actually improving the health of the entire population, it is not enough to enshrine legal coverage dimensions on population, service, and cost coverage. While these are necessary steps to improve access, actual accessibility also necessitates geographically available services at numbers which are adequate to cover the needs and which are of sufficient quality - these steps should be at the core of any conscious and systematic health planning. The progress made in terms of legal coverage entitlements, accessibility, and quality over the past decades in health services is overshadowed by reports of costly and ineffective health services, long waiting times, inadequate attention to people's needs, unequal use of services and lack of human manpower. In addition, many in the health workforce feel alienated and diminished to number-crunching administrators at the cost of time with patients and clients. Never have the possibilities to treat so many, so well been better. Still, we seem to lose out on the ability to deliver many of these services adequately in high-income as well as in low-income countries. The aim of this workshop is to discuss how strengthened planning of health services may contribute to more rational, timely and effective health services to reach universal health coverage and ultimately improved health. A panel consisting of Reinhard Busse (Professor, Berlin Technical University), Peter Berman (Adjunct Professor, Harvard T.H.Chan School of Public Health) and Birger Forsberg (Associate Professor, Department of Global Public Health, The Karolinska Institute) will define health planning and based on their long experience and expertise in the area, provide examples of successful and failed health planning efforts in The United States, Germany and Sweden. Also, global health perspectives on health planning will be discussed. Barriers and facilitators for improved health planning will be described and an ensuing discussion will engage the audience to address how health planning based on careful analysis of needs, demand and supply of services can be strengthened.

Jointly with the audience the panelists will seek the answers to questions, such as

1. What signifies health planning today in insurance-based and tax-based systems, respectively?

2. How can more consistent and well-developed health planning processes contribute to improved health services, universal health coverage and reduced inequities?

3. What next steps needs to be taken to strengthen health planning; globally and nationally?

This workshop will create interest around a revival of health planning as a way to tie it with UHC dimensions and to improve health and reduce inequities in access to and use of health services.

Key messages

• Conscious and systematic health planning is a necessary next step following UHC entitlements but has been neglected and needs to be revived.

• Health planning based on analysis of needs, demand and supply can make positive contributions to achieving universal health coverage and reduce inequities.

Speakers/Panelists

Birger Forsberg

Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

Peter Berman

Global Health and Population, Harvard University, West Braintree, USA

Reinhard Busse

Berlin University of Technology, Berlin, Germany