Having introduced the approach and concepts of medical economics, we now take a global perspective on the issue of health and social protection. In today's highly interconnected, migratory and mutually dependent world, national thinking remains hugely relevant but is not sufficient when discussing the roles and limits of health, healthcare and social protection. This chapter looks at global health, the basis for discussion about global justice. We then review global interventions and collaboration and link the changing demography of transition countries (from high fertility–high mortality via high fertility–low mortality to low fertility–low mortality) to social health protection. We describe the measurement of social health protection and introduce the application of behavioural economics in the field of healthcare – an important tool in developing worldwide social health protection.

Global health

Global health looks at the health of the population from a global perspective. In recent decades global health has become a more prominent issue as a result of the increasing inter-connectedness of people and societies as well as a moving towards a common understanding of “global social justice”. Such developments are necessary to deal with the common challenges to humankind, ranging from pollution, climate change and depleting resources to poverty, migration and conflict.

Global health is a population-based approach and can play an important role in reducing the burden of disease and promoting well-being in a globalized world. In addition to the classic “big issues” of global health threats (like, for example, the eradication of poliomyelitis or the Ebola and avian influenza outbreaks; for a more detailed discussion on this, see Chapter 18) that require joint monitoring and common action, there are also broader issues such as looking at poverty and inequality as disease risks, the need to address the conflict of economic interests and effective healthcare, the reduction of worldwide inequality and the analysis of institutional frameworks as a basis for effective interventions and cooperation (e.g. the role of WHO vis-à-vis bilateral cooperation or philanthropic initiatives and foundations).

Thus, global health combines a medical-epidemiological approach with equity and health diplomacy. Health economics can meaningfully contribute to all these areas and in this chapter some key aspects in each of these areas are discussed in more detail.