Improving health in Europe and Central Asia

To enhance their health systems, countries need to act on three main fronts - improve health outcomes, ensure proper financing, and strengthen institutional arrangements, says a new World Bank report "Getting Better: Improving Health System Outcomes in Europe an Central Asia".

"Health is a major development challenge facing the region today," said Philippe Le Houérou, World Bank Vice President for Europe and Central Asia. "It's a top priority for populations across the region and a major determinant of overall welfare. To respond to people's aspirations, health systems need to be affordable, efficient, and they need to provide high quality of care."

The life expectancy gap between ECA and Western Europe has widened significantly since the 1960s, while other middle-income regions have caught up and overtaken ECA. However, the story is not uniform across the region. Turkey has experienced very large health gains, Central Europe has steadily improved since the 1990s, and the Western Balkan countries have performed in line with global norms. But many other countries in the region are lagging behind. Very recently the trend across the entire region has improved, but full parity with Western Europe is still a distant goal, Kazinform has learnt from the WB's press service.

"The three major objectives of the health systems in Europe and Central Asia are improving population health outcomes, protecting households against the high and uncertain costs of medical care, and ensuring the efficiency of government health spending," emphasized Ana Revenga, World Bank Director for Human Development in Europe and Central Asia. "Achieving these goals requires strengthening the underlying institutional arrangements."

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