Dr. Katz is a global health science and security expert and an associate professor at the Georgetown University School of Nursing & Health Studies in the District of Columbia. Mr. Seifman an international health consultant who used to work with the World Bank.
They say there is a circular relationship between foreign investments and the ability of a country to respond to an infectious disease.
That said, the authors suggest the World Bank Group provide guarantees to potential external investors through an existing mechanism called the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, which was created to help investors decide whether or not to invest based on risks. According to the researchers, MIGA has some flexibility when it calculates investors’ premiums for covering certain risks, like investing in a country that can’t defend itself against disease outbreaks.
“We are trying to propose innovative methods to incentivize the development of the public health infrastructure to prevent, detect and respond to infectious disease threats,” said Dr. Katz. “We think MIGA might be one way to do this.”
The authors concluded by noting there is still considerable research to be done before expanding MIGA coverage to deal with public health emergencies, but such crises are a fact of life and the private sector has “much to lose or gain, depending on what core capacities in health are in place.”
To read to full special feature in the Journal of Health Care Finance, click here.
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