Meet the editor

Aida Isabel Tavares holds a PhD in Economic Analysis awarded by the Autónoma University of Barcelona in 2008. Her research focus has been on health economics, policy and management and she has published several articles in international peer-reviewed journals. She has also published a book on public economics. Prof. Tavares has been teaching several courses, at different universities, including microeconomics, health economics and pub-

lic economics. Currently she collaborates with the Centre of Studies and Research in Health at the University of Coimbra and she is an Assistant Professor in the Lisbon School of Economics and Management, University of Lisbon.

Contents

**Section 1**

**Section 2**

Aging Era

**Section 3**

*by Aida Isabel Tavares*

*by Abualbishr Alshreef*

*by Alex E. Asakitikpi*

Well-Being and Dignity

with Universal Healthcare Access

**Preface III**

Introduction **1**

**Chapter 1 3**

Funding **7**

**Chapter 2 9**

**Chapter 3 31**

**Chapter 4 45**

Providing Quality **59**

**Chapter 5 61**

**Chapter 6 73** An Intersectional Innovative Analysis of How Providers' Discourses Interact

Healthcare Coverage and Affordability in Nigeria: An Alternative Model

Caring for Older People - Improving Healthcare Quality to Ensure

Provider Payment Mechanisms: Effective Policy Tools for Achieving

Universal Health Coverage, Long-Term Care, and Funding in an

Introductory Chapter: Universal Health Coverage

Universal and Sustainable Healthcare Coverage

*by Aida Isabel Tavares and Pedro Lopes Ferreira*

*by Sandra Pennbrant and Margareta Karlsson*

*by Lorena Saletti-Cuesta and Lila Aizenberg*

to Equitable Healthcare Delivery

## Contents



Preface

Universal health coverage (UHC) is a major ambition of every health system in the world. It advocates that quality health services are to be accessed by all people, when needed, without being too expensive. This ambition has been clearly stated as a target for the Sustainable Development Goal defined by the United Nations in the UN Millennium Summit of 2000. The World Health Organization in 2013 published the 'World Health Report: Research for universal health coverage', which presented the importance of researching and discussing how to achieve universal health coverage. The main purpose of this book is contributing to the ongoing discussion on this topic.

This book starts with the chapter "Funding Universal Healthcare and Long-Term Care in an Aging Era" by Aida Isabel Tavares and Pedro Lopes Ferreira, where the concept of UHC is described as well as the funding of UHC and long-term care in the demographic scenario of aging. This chapter details several introductory

Under the topic of funding, Abualbishr Alshreef wrote the next chapter "Provider

Funding is fundamental to ensure that UHC may be achieved and this includes the prevention of catastrophic health expenditures or financial hardship. The next chapter "Healthcare Coverage and Affordability in Nigeria: An Alternative Model to Equitable Healthcare Delivery" by Alex Asakitikpi addressed this topic. In Nigeria there have been several efforts to promote health equity and guarantee of access to all citizens; however, the results are worse than expected. The authors propose measures related to provider's payments that are all-embracing towards the provision of healthcare services to Nigerians and other low- and medium-income countries.

UHC foresees access to quality healthcare services. Sandra Pennbrant in the next chapter "Caring for Older Persons - Improving Healthcare Quality to Ensure Wellbeing and Dignity" discusses the importance of treating the elderly with dignity and a caring attitude and how this can be done. This is particularly important in a world where the aging phenomenon is changing the demographic structure.

The concern for quality continues in the next chapter entitled "An Intersectional Innovative Analysis of How Providers' Discourses Interacts with Universal Healthcare Access" by Lorena Saletti-Cuesta. Focusing on Argentina, the author explores how the intersectionality may help to understand the multiple axes of inequalities that cross healthcare providers' discourses on violence against women

Payment Mechanisms: Effective Policy Tools for Achieving Universal and Sustainable Healthcare Coverage". One role of funding UHC is paying providers for the healthcare services supplied to people. The payment mechanism needs to be strategic in order to promote cost containment. This chapter reviews the problem of increasing cost in health services in low- and middle-income countries and explores the alternative payment mechanisms which may contain the rising costs and which

concepts on UHC and relates them with LTC in aging societies.

may contribute to the implementation of UHC.

and health problems of migrant women.

*by Stefano Neri*
