Helms, writing in the Wall Street Journal, described the policy message in the World Health Report...

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Helms, writing in the Wall Street Journal, described the policy message in the World Health Report 2000 as “healthcare à la Karl Marx”,1 whereas Vicente Navarro described it as the mouthpiece of “US financial and political circles”.2 This contrast in opinions illustrates how discussions of health policy or health system reform often become ideological debates that are fuelled by anecdotes or, at best, by non-comparable results from studies in which differing methods were used. The WHO Framework on Health Systems Performance Assessment3 is an attempt to accelerate the development of an evidence base on the outcomes of health systems, and of the determinants of these outcomes. Without comparable information about the achievements and organisation of different systems, transcendence of purely ideological debates will be difficult. Clinical practice in many countries is being transformed by evidence-based medicine, and a similar transformation in assessment of health system performance is desperately needed. We hope that the World Health Report 2000 is a step in that direction. Navarro seems to have misinterpreted the fundamental principles of the WHO Framework, which are: to clarify the boundaries of health systems; to assess how health and other systems interact to achieve key social goals; to define and measure health, responsiveness, and fairness in financial contribution; and, ultimately, to show the importance of transparency and accountability for the world’s health systems. Social systems and goals In his critique, Navarro repeatedly refers to the “medical care system”, but in the WHO framework, used in the World Health Report 2000, the health system is defined broadly to include all individuals, groups, organisations, and associated resources whose

David · Accepted Answer

P a g e  | 1
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Discussion
P a g e  | 2
Various evolutionary methods and parameters are being used to evaluate the performance of 
health care services in a region; different authors and analysis have also challenged the 
parameters set by social organizations for health care evaluation and shows that there is need 
for in-depth parameter evaluation (Murray & Frenk, 2001). With the help of WHO world 
assessment report 2000 it is clear that general factors such as affordability, equitable 
distribution, accessibility, sustainability and quality of service provided are not evaluating 
actual impact of the plan implemented (Navarro, 2000).   
 I would agree with the critique statement made in the given essay that  evaluation method are 
unable to consider the factors such as affordability, sustainability, degree of responsiveness 
and quality of service provided; but how these factors can be evaluated? For instance, 
problem faced in evaluating the responsiveness depends on the key information provided by 
the informant to the responder in the research (World Health Organization, 2000); failure in 
doing so properly in the questionnaire causes lack of proper data collection.

Helms, writing in the Wall Street Journal, described the policy message in the World Health Report 2000 as “healthcare à la Karl Marx”,1 whereas Vicente Navarro described it as the mouthpiece of “US...

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