At a global level, international institutions, donors, grants, and conditional loans are increasingly influencing the financing and organization of health systems in much of the world, with implications for equity in access to care. There is a renewed global push for universal health coverage but lack of agreement on how it should be funded or administered. Private financing for health systems in many countries is rising; there is a critical shortage of human resources for health; out-of-pocket payments continue to push people into ‘medical poverty’; and the high costs of new medical technologies or therapeutics too often available only to the few pose a challenge to appropriate funding levels for comprehensive primary health services essential to the many.
Papers submitted under this section will explore how globalization-related processes are affecting the development of national and regional health systems, with a focus on how such systems improve health equity in terms of access, coverage, and financing. We are not accepting articles on health systems that do not attend to how they are being affected by globalization.