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The financing of health and mental health services
is derived from a combination of sources within the public and
private sector. Public financing is derived from taxation, from
government owned insurance schemes and from profit and non-profit
donors and grants. Private financing is derived from privately
owned for- profit and non-profit health insurance schemes, private
financiers and charity and donors. In addition, financing is derived,
particularly in developing countries, from out-of-pocket spending
by consumers and their families and carers. "Much of what is included
in the financing function occurs outside what is usually considered
to be the health system."(76)
It is argued that the financial arrangements for mental health
should be incorporated into the general health financing arrangements
but that mental health resources should remain identifiable and
be allocated through a mental health programme, regardless of
where the services are located. (77)
Those developing mental health policy may look at
how mental health is presently being financed in a country, how
this impacts on the equity and efficiency of the existing mental
health delivery system and on the distribution of the economic
burden. Policy makers may wish to determine in what direction
a country should proceed in relation to its financing of mental
health services, in part, to meet the goals within the mental
health policy.
"Health system financing is the process by which
revenues are collected from primary and secondary sources, accumulated
in fund pools and allocated to provider activities. For the purposes
of analysis it is useful to divide health system financing into
three sub functions: revenue collection, fund pooling and purchasing."
(78)
and to consider these sub-functions within public and private
domains.
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