Findings From the First SHA Implementations in 15 Asian Countries - What this Tells About How Asian Countries Differ, and How the Region is Different or the Same as the OECD

Alongside the first phase of SHA pilot implementations in the OECD, several non-OECD Asian economies piloted the SHA to produce standardised estimates of their national health spending. They range from some of the poorest economies in the world (Bangladesh, Nepal, Mongolia) to some of the richest (Hong Kong SAR, Taiwan). These results provide the first truly comparable measures not only of the level of spending in a representative range of developing economies, but also of the composition and source of spending. Although the Asian countries represent far greater diversity in the organisation and financing of health systems than is the case in the OECD, these first results indicate several similarities and continuities with earlier OECD analysis. First, the close relationship…