FIND’s Intervention on Sustaining Health Financing in a Challenging Global Economy

Delivered by Dr Dayo Adetifa
27 March 2025

FIND wishes to commend South Africa for including this important subject – Financial Protection for Universal Health Coverage – during its G20.

As previously noted, achieving more health for the money requires a shift toward efficient, equitable systems, where expanded deployment of cost-effective and cost-reducing diagnostic tools play a central role.

Diagnostics enable screening, prevention, and treatment, and ensure resources are used efficiently, including by avoiding unnecessary or inappropriate treatment. With the increasing incorporation of AI and other digital tools, greater task sharing and self-care become important avenues for cost saving. Yet diagnostics remain underfunded, under-prioritised  and under-integrated in financing reforms.

We urge the G20 members to treat diagnostics as a strategic investment through the following actions:

1. Include essential diagnostics in the design of health benefit packages, costed and funded through pooled mechanisms.
2. Leverage diagnostics to enable efficiencies in payment reform and service delivery. Countries are increasingly adopting strategic purchasing models which rely on accurate diagnosis to deliver cost-effective care.
3. Apply health technology assessments and pooled procurement strategies to help countries prioritize diagnostics that are affordable, scalable and impactful.

As you move to integrate vertical programmes, it is critical to embed diagnostic services within broader health financing and delivery systems. This includes financing diagnostics through national budgets, procuring them through public systems, and delivering them as part of integrated care. Doing so will safeguard access, reduce fragmentation, and support long-term sustainability. FIND, with its vision of #DiagnosisForAll, is ready to support G20 countries in anchoring diagnostics at the heart of sustainable health financing.

Thank you.