From double shock to double recovery: implications and options for health financing in the time of COVID-19
This publication updates the analyses presented in the original discussion paper “From Double Shock to Double Recovery – Implications and Options for Health Financing in the Time of COVID-19,” published in March 2021 (C. Kurowski, D. B. Evans, et al. 2021). The original paper used macroeconomic projections released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in October 2020 (IMF 2020a) to project the possible time path of health spending per capita in 178 countries and territories from 2020 to 2025, under different scenarios. The scenarios built on observations of how health spending had responded during and immediately after previous economic crises, while taking into account that the economic crisis provoked by COVID-19 is different in its nature and scale. Since the launch of the original paper, its findings have been discussed with government officials, development partners, and World Bank staff in a series of seminars designed to clarify implications for countries and explore how governments can maintain needed levels of health spending following COVID-19.
