• Tuition Fees: General Admission €1,500, tropEd €1,000
• 2-week courseThe course equals 90 hours of student investment time (76 hrs of direct contact time and 14 hrs of self-study), TropEd students can earn 3 ECTS points
• Open to: tropEd students, public health professionals and other health professionals

Entry Requirements

This Course is held in English. Course participants should have excellent command/high level of proficiency in reading, writing and speaking English.

Content Overview

Building on the basic knowledge of major diseases and specific experience in their control as well as quantitative and qualitative research methods, this course deepens the understanding of principles and strategies in disease control and equips participants with the skills to successfully establish, strengthen, and systematically review disease control programmes in low- and middle-income countries. The course uses global, regional, and local examples to analyse strengths and weaknesses of strategies and policies. A special focus is put on multi-disciplinary and inter-sectoral collaboration as well as community and patient involvement.

Course Topics

• Health economics theory relevant to health financing
• The role of health financing in a health system
• Basic health financing functions (collection, pooling, purchasing)
• Historical development in health financing in low and middle income countries: from free health care to user fees to social health protection
• Concept and practice of Universal Health Coverage – health financing and equity considerations
• Universal Health Coverage and the Migration/Refugee Crisis
• Health insurance development in high and low middle income countries: micro-health insurance, tax-based insurance, social health insurance
• Innovative purchasing options in the health sector: from passive to strategic purchasing

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course participants will be able to:

• Recognise the positive and normative foundations of health care financing, with specific reference to the discourse on health systems reform, universal health coverage and equity
• Differentiate health financing functions and models in any given health system context.
• Compare and analyse the basic features of health care financing mechanisms in high-, middle-, and low-income countries, including situations pertaining to migrant and refugee crises
• Critically appraise the roles of the public and private sector in health care financing in different contexts
• Differentiate the tools used in the development and assessment of financing mechanisms and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses
• Compare and appraise the value of alternative viable health financing options to answer health system challenges in their respective countries

Schedule & Certification

Most of the short courses require full-time attendance from Mondays to Fridays, 9am - 5 pm. Of Fridays courses generally finish around noon If not stated otherwise, all classes and activities will also run on public holidays.

Students and course participants must attend full-time and successtully complete all the assessment components in order to receive a certificate of attendance or a grade report from Heidelberg University. tropEd students will be able to credit short courses towards the Master's programme at their home institution.

Financing Health Care: Concepts, Challenges and Practices

• General Admittance: € 1.500.-
• tropEd students: € 1.000.-

Included in the course fee is a non-refundable registration fee of € 200.-
Please register as soon as possible as the number of participants is limited.
Unfortunately, no Scholarships are available.
If the participant withdraws from the course

• less than 6 weeks prior: 25 % of the course fee will be charged.
• less than 4 weeks prior: 50 % of the course fee will be charged.
• less than 2 weeks prior: the whole course fee will be charged.

The tuition fee does not include accommodation, insurance or other personal living costs during the stay.