EMHN 1: Forum on Promoting Markets in Healthcare, IDEAS-Malaysia

* Note: I changed the title of this paper from the original "Healthcare Competition 9: Forum on Promoting Markets in Healthcare, IDEAS-Malaysia" as I will be writing more about the papers and activities of the Emerging Markets Health Network (EMHN) in the coming weeks and months. Thank you. *

There will be a good international forum/seminar on "Promoting Markets in Healthcare" this coming September. A good friend, the Executive Director of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS), Wan Saiful Wan Jan, sent me this announcement below,
http://ideas.org.my/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Healthcare-Policy-Training-Workshop-Description.pdf

Promoting markets in healthcare
One-Day Workshop for Asian Think Tanks
Saturday 8 September 2012, Penang, Malaysia

Hosted by IDEAS and Emerging Markets Health Network (EMHN)

Background

The popular view of healthcare is that it is a human right and a public good, and therefore should be both supplied and paid for by government, at no cost to the individual. For many commentators and policymakers, private provision of healthcare is seen as deeply inequitable and anti-poor.

As a result many governments in the region are attempting to strengthen and widen the public provision of healthcare, even though a large body of international evidence shows that this is far from the best way to provide healthcare.

This poses some challenging questions to free market policy researchers. To what extent does public provision of healthcare actually help the poor? How can private sector involvement in provision improve health outcomes for all, not just the rich? And what can be done to convince the public that liberalisation of the healthcare industry will benefit everyone, including the underprivileged?

This one day training workshop serves as:

1. a first step towards helping Asian researchers explore the issues and challenges around this topic, in order to better make the case for markets in healthcare

2. a networking platform
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It is definitely a good international forum and networking opportunity for think tank leaders and healthcare policy researchers who somehow believe that (a) while health is a right, health is also a (personal) responsibility, and (b) while there are market failures and problems to healthcare, there are also market solutions to such problems.

I am very happy that IDEAS has started this great initiative. Cheers Wan.
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See also:
Healthcare competition 1: Switzerland, August 28, 2010
Healthcare competition 2: Singapore, August 29, 2010
Healthcare competition 3: Hong Kong, September 02, 2010
Healthcare Competition 4: Solving Info Assymetry, September 08, 2010
Healthcare Competition 5: Thailand, September 24, 2010
Healthcare Competition 6: United States, May 05, 2011
Healthcare Competition 7: Moral Hazards in Healthcare Subsidies, May 24, 2011
Healthcare Competition 8: Centralization vs. Deregulation of Healthcare, December 31, 2011


Other health topics in this blog, most recent articles:


Lifestyle Diseases 20: On Nanny State and Obesity, June 20, 2012
Counterfeit Drugs 6: Online Drugs, US FDA and G8 on Fighting Fake Drugs, June 19, 2012
Health Transparency 9: DOH, Public Health Budget, June 18, 2012
PhilHealth Watch 11: Is PHIC an Insurance Company?, June 12, 2012
Drug Innovation 4: New Anti-Cancer Drugs, June 08, 2012
Drug Price Control 27: Letter to Sen. Pia Cayetano, May 15, 2012
Socialized Healthcare 4: On Health for All, May 02, 2012
Healthcare Monopoly 5: Canada, April 09, 2012