Sustainable health financing methods in developed countries: a scoping review

Health financing system is the process of collecting, pooling and managing financial resources to purchase healthcare services and promote, restore or maintain people health. An increase in health expenditure and the governments’ inability to commit sufficient resources introduces challenges to the sustainability of health system financing. This study was conducted to identify sustainable health financing methods in developed countries.

This study was a scoping review research. All studies related to the sustainable health financing solutions in developed countries were searched using appropriate keywords in “PubMed”, “Scopus”, “Science Direct”, “Web of Science”, “Magiran”, “SID” and “Iranmedex” databases and two search engines “Google” and “Google scholar”. Finally, 38 studies were selected and analyzed using the framework analysis method and MAXQDA software.

Overall, 30 solutions were identified for sustainable financing of the health system of developed countries and categorized into three sections: collecting financial resources, pooling and managing financial resources, and purchasing healthcare services. Strategic purchasing, reducing induced demand, using prospective payment methods, consolidating multiple insurance funds, using an efficient patient referral system, using clinical guidelines, public-private partnerships, value based health services package and introducing new innovative health insurance schemes were the most frequent solutions for sustainable health system financing in developed countries.

Innovative solutions are used to strengthen the sustainability of the health financing system in developed countries. Iran’s policymakers can sustain the country’s health system financing by adopting and adapting these solutions.