Prevention and Better Resource Allocation for the Future of Healthcare
The latest data on demographic trends worldwide threateningly predict that soon governments will face the collapse of their healthcare systems and the principle of equal access to medical assistance will be at risk, unless they implement dramatic policies aimed at maximizing health resource allocation.
To this matter, one of the most urgent for the future of the world's population, Value in Health has dedicated a special issue edited by Rosanna Tarricone and Aleksandra Torbica, which is the result of the international conference Sustaining and Implementing Universal Health Coverage: 4 Perspectives for 5 Continentsorganized by SDA Bocconi in February 2012.
An aging of the population and the increase of chronic diseases have put in doubt the right of access to healthcare, turning it into a privilege to be earnt, even in the most developed Western countries. No government will be able to afford healthcare costs, constantly increasing, unless it counts on prevention and implementation of more cost-effective healthcare policies.
The conference, attended by prominent speakers from all over the world and representatives of big international organizations like the World Bank, the European Commision, OECD and WHO, faced all these open issues, representing an important moment of debate among the main protagonists of the field about the future of health care.
"Health care systems' sustainability is possible only if we take up the challenge imposed by the aging of population, chronicle diseases and by the fast development of technologies", says Rosanna Tarricone. "We have to respond vigorously to these irreversible trends, with a long term vision and, above all, coordinating the efforts of the diverse stakeholders in order to make them converge towards the main purpose of granting the access to cost-effective care for all citizens", she concludes.
Value in Health's special issue (Volume 16, Issue 1, Supplement) has selected the most relevant papers among those presented at the conference, through a peer-to-peer review process. The journal is a point of reference for the academic community that deals with health economics and the management of healthcare.
Rosanna Tarricone (Department of Policy Analysis and Public Management), Director of the Centre for Research on Healthcare Management (CeRGAS), was the scientific organizer of the conference. Aleksandra Torbica, Director of SDA Bocconi Master of International Healthcare Management, Economics and Policy (MIHMEP), is Assistant Professor for the Department of Policy Analysis and Public Management and a researcher of CeRGAS.