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  • 20-March-2023

    English

    Health Working Papers

    The OECD Health Working Papers series is designed to make available to a wider readership health studies prepared for use within the OECD.

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  • 20-March-2023

    English

    The economic consequences of air pollution policies in Arctic Council countries - A sectoral analysis

    This report quantifies the environmental, health and economic consequences of policy action on air pollution in Arctic Council countries, with a focus on sectoral differences. The report takes a modelling approach and compares a baseline scenario that reflects current legislation, with a policy scenario in which the best available techniques to reduce emissions are deployed in all emitting sectors. The report highlights that benefits from air quality improvements can be obtained when considering emission reductions throughout the economy, and not just in the sectors that are targeted more often, such as industry and transport. The results presented in the report also highlight the need for country-specific policy strategies that take into account the current levels of policy stringency, the sectoral contributions to air pollution, and the need for sectoral investment in new technologies, which also vary by country.

  • 15-March-2023

    English

    Measuring Population Mental Health

    Good mental health is a vital part of people’s well-being, and the COVID-19 pandemic brought renewed attention to its importance. However, discussions so far have not focused sufficiently on how governments should best monitor it at the broader population level, and on how to consider both mental ill-health and positive mental states. This report supports national statistical offices and other data producers in collecting high-quality measures of population mental health outcomes in a more frequent, consistent and internationally harmonised manner. It documents existing measurement practice across OECD countries, discusses the advantages and limitations of available measurement tools, and recommends priority measures to adopt in household, social and health surveys. Measuring Population Mental Health is the first of two reports as part of an assessment of mental health and well-being in the context of the OECD's work on measuring well-being.

  • 10-March-2023

    English

    Collaborative mechanisms for sustainable health innovation - The case of vaccines and antibiotics

    The provision of key health technologies and products such as vaccines and antibiotics is insufficient in purely competitive and volume-based markets, requiring new revenue streams for sustainability. Recent developments in health innovation suggest that innovative collaborative mechanisms can be effective in addressing this issue. In the domains of vaccines and antibiotics, these approaches should incorporate shared research investment, long-term access planning, the provision of manufacturing infrastructure, supply chains, and financial returns. Collaborative approaches such as subscription models could be piloted at the regional level, while other models could be developed to delink innovation, manufacturing, and access from sales volume and revenue. Finally, blended finance instruments from the development field could encourage greater collaboration among established and emerging stakeholders in health innovation. These stakeholders should work together to create, test, access, and implement more collaborative approaches to health innovation to share upfront investments, mitigate risks of failure, and accelerate market access.

  • 9-March-2023

    English

    Health Inequalities

    Despite remarkable progress in health status and life expectancy in OECD countries over the past decades, there remain large inequalities not only across countries, but also across population groups within each country. These inequalities in health status are linked to many factors, including differences in exposure to risk factors to health and in access to health care.

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  • 9-March-2023

    English

    Socio-economic and ethnic health inequalities in COVID-19 outcomes across OECD countries

    The COVID 19 pandemic has disproportionately hit some vulnerable population groups. Those living in deprived areas, migrant population, and ethnic minorities are at higher risk of catching and dying from the virus than other groups, and they also face significant indirect health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic - both mental health impacts and disruption of routine care. The working paper gathers evidence on the direct and indirect health impacts of the COVID-19 on the poor population and the ethnic minorities. It reviews factors underlying these inequalities, and maps policy interventions adopted by OECD countries to help address the disproportionate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on vulnerable population groups.

  • 6-March-2023

    English

    Health Expenditure

    Latest OECD estimates point to average health expenditure growth of 5% in 2020, driven by the exceptionally high growth in spending by government and compulsory schemes (+8.1%) in response to the additional needs to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Preliminary estimates for a group of 17 countries suggest that health spending increased by around 6% on average in 2021, according to OECD Health Statistics 2022, released in July 2022.

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  • 1-March-2023

    English

    Ageing and Long-term Care

    With populations in OECD countries ageing, more people are living with long-term care needs. The OECD Health Division has an ongoing programme of work to support countries in developing long-term care systems that can meet the needs of their populations now and in the future.

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  • 27-February-2023

    English

    Improving the timeliness of health expenditure tracking in OECD and low- and middle-income countries

    The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted that access to timely health spending data is crucial for informed policy-making. This Health Working Paper summarises and compares the methodologies applied in around half of OECD countries to estimate public and private health spending for the most recent year (i.e., t-1) as well as the approaches taken by the OECD Secretariat to fill existing data gaps for the remaining OECD countries. For the first time, the paper also explores the feasibility of nowcasting health spending for the current year (i.e., t) and examines data sources that could be potentially useful in such an exercise. While this review should help OECD countries that do not yet have experience in estimating health spending for year t-1 to improve the timeliness in their data reporting, the paper also analyses the applicability of the methods in low- and middle-income countries.

  • 23-February-2023

    English

    Boosting investment in health systems will be essential to deal with future shocks, says OECD

    Governments should urgently adapt their health systems to better respond to future shocks, given the huge impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people and the global economy. Major investment is needed in the health workforce, alongside increased spending on prevention and digital infrastructure, according to a new OECD report.

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