Architecture of the health system as an enabler of better wellbeing.

Abstract

Introduction: Health systems worldwide have heterogenous capacities and financing characteristics. No clear empirical evidence is available on the possible outcomes of these characteristics for population wellbeing.

Aim: The study aims to provide empirical insight into health policy alternatives to support the development of health system architecture to improve population wellbeing.

Method and results: We developed an unsupervised neural network model to cluster countries and used the Human Development Index to derive a wellbeing model. The results show that no single health system architecture is associated with a higher level of population wellbeing. Strikingly, high levels of health expenditure and physical health capacity do not guarantee a high level of population wellbeing and different health systems correspond to a certain wellbeing level.

Conclusions: Our analysis shows that alternative options exist for some health system characteristics. These can be considered by governments developing health policy priorities.