COVID-19 puts emerging market health resilience in spotlight
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Emerging markets' experience of COVID-19 has exposed vulnerabilities in their health systems. Affordable health insurance has a central role to play in enhancing protection for households.
Key takeaways
- Emerging markets face a health protection gap of about USD 420 billion, close to 70% of the global gap.
- Households bear high health costs, paying for 40% of healthcare costs from out-of-pocket expenditure, vs 24% in advanced markets.
- China is the only market of the BRICS economies to have increased hospital bed density between 2000 and 2017.
- Insurers can play a vital role in strengthening household resilience by providing health cover to complement publicly funded programmes.
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