Many low- and middle-income countries are seeking to reform their health financing systems to move towards universal coverage. This typically means that financing is based on people's ability to pay while, for service use, benefits are based on the need for health care. Financing incidence analysis (FIA) and benefit incidence analysis (BIA) are two popular tools used to assess equity in health systems financing and service use. FIA studies examine who pays for the health sector and how these contributions are distributed according to socioeconomic status (SES). BIA determines who benefits from health care spending, with recipients ranked by their relative SES. In this article, we identify 10 resources to assist researchers and policy makers seeking to undertake or interpret findings from financing and benefit incidence analyses in the health sector. The article pays particular attention to the data requirements, computations, methodological challenges and country level experiences with these types of analyses.
AD - School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales, Samuels Bldg, Kensington Campus, New South Wales 2052, Australia, Department of Global Health and Development, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK, Centre for Health Information, Policy and Systems Research, Fiji National University, Suva, Fiji Islands, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universudade Nacional Timor-Leste, Dili, Timor-Leste, George Institute for Global Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales, Samuels Bldg, Kensington Campus, New South Wales 2052, Australia, Department of Global Health and Development, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK, Centre for Health Information, Policy and Systems Research, Fiji National University, Suva, Fiji Islands, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universudade Nacional Timor-Leste, Dili, Timor-Leste, George Institute for Global Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia Virginia.Wiseman@lshtm.ac.uk.Many low- and middle-income countries are seeking to reform their health financing systems to move towards universal coverage. This typically means that financing is based on people's ability to pay while, for service use, benefits are based on the need for health care. Financing incidence analysis (FIA) and benefit incidence analysis (BIA) are two popular tools used to assess equity in health systems financing and service use. FIA studies examine who pays for the health sector and how these contributions are distributed according to socioeconomic status (SES). BIA determines who benefits from health care spending, with recipients ranked by their relative SES. In this article, we identify 10 resources to assist researchers and policy makers seeking to undertake or interpret findings from financing and benefit incidence analyses in the health sector. The article pays particular attention to the data requirements, computations, methodological challenges and country level experiences with these types of analyses.
PY - 2015 SN - 1460-2237 (Electronic)