Five Facts to Know: Health Care Policy in the Post-COVID Era
As the world continues to emerge from the COVID era, it is already apparent that the pandemic has had an immense structural impact on global health systems and has raised new challenges, to which all health care stakeholders will need to adapt. The specifics around how health care is delivered and financed differ from country to country, but the biggest issues impacting the health care sector this year will have global implications. Here are five major health care trends that Edelman Global Advisory’s Global Health Policy and Public Affairs team is watching in 2023:
1. Greater Strain on Health Care Resources and Budgets
The COVID pandemic placed enormous stress on health care systems around the world, straining budgets and health care providers to the limits, causing the re-allocation of health care resources to new areas and away from others, and leading to permanent change in the way health care is delivered, such as through telehealth. These changes will permanently transform health policy in the coming year, placing greater pressure on health care providers and innovators alike. As health care policymakers adapt and address the financial and systemic fallout of COVID in the coming years, it will be more important than ever for stakeholders in the health care ecosystem to anticipate change and be proactive, constructive players amid the coming health care policy transformations.
2. Innovation Financing Crunch
The health care industry is in a period of rapidly accelerating innovation. New technologies have the potential to transform the lives of people living with serious disease, in areas such as gene and cell therapy, gene-editing, AI, the use of “big data” and telehealth. But even as innovation is celebrated, cost pressures are leading to policies that could impede or undermine it. With the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 in the United States last fall, experts expect a dampening effect on innovation in certain therapeutic areas, potentially reducing the role of the US as the engine of health care innovation growth. Global innovation will also be impacted by a new investment climate for start-ups as the technology sector and venture capitalist financing adapt to rising interest rates. These dynamics create an environment in which those bringing new, high-priced technologies to market will continue to collide with payers and policymakers seeking to control skyrocketing health care costs. Health care stakeholders across sectors will need to make sure they have a seat at the table for these important debates.
3. The Equity and Access Gap
COVID has highlighted huge gaps in health care access, affordability and equity, at both individual country and global levels. On the global level, we saw during the pandemic how well-resourced countries benefitted relatively quickly from life-saving therapies, while less-resourced countries struggled to gain access. While innovative, advanced technologies delivered on their promise, a range of issues impeding effective global distribution created uneven access. Global organizations, together with individual country leaders and private sector entities, will need to take action to better prepare for, guard against and ultimately root out these systemic inequities, including through realigning business incentives, reconfiguring supply chains and reforming global partnerships.
4. Rising Mental Health Crisis
While awareness of mental health as a growing public health issue was rising prior to the pandemic, the COVID era brought the true extent and seriousness of mental health into sharper relief. As many experienced greater isolation during the pandemic and related lockdown, mental health challenges became more pronounced, and the inability of the system to adequately address these challenges became more apparent. Employers will continue to play an increasingly important role in addressing this public health issue, given their proximity to many of those struggling, and will need to be engaged as governments and other health organizations consider policy solutions.
5. Health Tech Nationalism
In the years leading up to COVID, globalization had been on the rise. The pandemic has caused a sudden reversal of this trend. Countries have become more nationalistic in terms of how they look at health care supply chains, the sharing of technology and cross-border deals in order to protect national security. This may result in policies that are less advantageous for global companies. Engagement in these debates will also be very important.
The EGA Global Health Policy and Public Affairs team will continue to monitor these trends as we partner with clients to navigate the complex health policy landscape.
