Health Financing and Human Development Index (HDI) in Iran

The health sector is one of the key sectors of any countries and the value added created in it is one of the criteria for economic growth and development of countries. Therefore, the ultimate goal of all health systems in the world is to achieve public health coverage as one of the most basic economic sectors of any society. Since achieving universal health coverage depends on appropriate financing, aim of this study is to investigate the effect between Iran's human development index and Health system financing model (government, health insurance, people and the private sector).

This study is a retrospective and analytical study. To describe the long-term relationships between the variables under study, seasonal data from the time series of 2001 to 2018 and the aggregation technique using the Engle-Granger and Johansen -Joselius methods have been used.

The results of model estimation based on the Engle-Granger method confirm that there is a long-term relationship between variables. Also, results of the Johansen -Joselius method show the existence of two cumulative vectors, which overall confirm the positive effect of changes in government share, health insurance share, private sector share of Gross domestic product (GDP) and the inverse relationship of changes in the share of people in GDP to changes in Iran's human development index.

Recent health sector policies, including the implementation of the country's health transformation program, public insurance coverage policies and health tariffs, have been resultful and effective. Therefore, for the further and permanent growth of Iran's human development index and increase the country's development in the region and internationally, special attention should be paid to the country's health insurance sector and its importance in the health system financing model by reviewing basic health insurance packages and improved the quantity and quality of basic and supplementary health insurance.