Table 2.

Applying the three PHC measures to WHO's SDG price tag model

		Measure 1 (M1)	Measure 2 (M2)	Measure 3 (M3)
Health interventions
Number of health interventions considered as PHC (out of 188 interventions in original SDG model)		143	152	160
Examples of interventions included under each PHC measure, by platform
	Policy and population-wide interventions	Legislative and regulatory interventions such as taxes on alcohol and tobacco, marketing restrictions, and bans; population-level behaviour change communication campaigns—eg, breastfeeding for infants and safe sex to reduce HIV transmission	Same as M1	Same as M1, plus water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions
	Periodic outreach and schedulable services	Vaccination programmes; family planning; nutrition counselling and micronutrient supplementation	Same as M1	Same as M1
	First-level clinical services	Disease-specific pharmaceutical treatment through outpatient care (eg, oral antibiotics for pneumonia, first-line tuberculosis treatment, standard glycaemic control treatment for diabetes); counselling and support for behaviour change (eg, smoking cessation)	Same as M1, plus normal delivery and basic neonate resuscitation	Same as M2
	Care provided at first level and above	Mammography to detect breast cancer; treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease	Same as M1, plus basic emergency obstetric care	Same as M2
Health system strengthening
Health workforce		Health workforce estimates are calculated for three categories: medical doctors, nurses or midwifes, and other. We use a bottom-up approach to estimate the full-time equivalent workers required to provide the defined package of PHC interventions, by country and by year. Bottom-up estimates were also calculated for the full SDG set of interventions and a relative share was subsequently estimated for PHC. The relative share was applied to the total number of health workers estimated to be required for the WHO SDG price tag, which was based on target population-density ratios. Using this approach, the estimated health worker cost for PHC is a proportion of the population-density-based cost as estimated in the SDG price tag.	Similar to M1, we calculate the share of health workers' time spent delivering PHC interventions within the context of the overall SDG price tag; under M2, the share is greater, because it includes more interventions than M1. In order to account for generalised inpatient care, we include an additional share of health worker time.	Same as M2
Infrastructure and equipment		The model includes costs for health centres, district hospitals, and provincial hospitals. The full costs of building, refurbishing, and maintaining health centres is attributed to PHC. For district hospitals and provincial hospitals, we include a percentage share of the cost required to construct, refurbish, and equip. The share is derived from national health accounts expenditure data on non-specialised outpatient care in low-income and middle-income countries (33% for district hospitals and 3% for provincial hospitals).	Similar to M1, we include the full cost of health centres. We increase the share of costs allocated to PHC from district hospitals to 81% to account for general (non-specialised) inpatient care, and similarly increase the share to 27% for provincial hospitals. Again, the shares are based on data from national health accounts.	Same as M2
Health information system		Costs for strengthening the health-facility-based system	Costs include components related to strengthening the health-facility-based system, administrative information systems, public health institutes, and administration of surveys	Same as M2, plus the full cost for a census and civil registry system (includes costs beyond the health sector)
Medicines, diagnostics, and supplies		Costs are directly estimated based on medicines, diagnostics, and supplies required for each intervention, multiplied by the numbers reached by country and year	Same as M1, plus a greater cost because more interventions are included	Same as M2, plus considering a greater number of interventions
Supply chain		The cost of supply chain was estimated by taking a share of the supply chain cost from the 2017 WHO SDG price tag; the share is based on the relative total cost of commodities provided under each PHC package, compared with the total cost of commodities estimated in the SDG price tag; costs for cold chain are estimated separately and included fully	Same as M1, plus considering the specific commodity costs for M2; cold chain is separate and included fully	Same as M2, plus considering the specific commodity costs for M3; cold chain is separate and included fully
Health financing		80% of health-financing-related costs are included	The full health-financing costs are included	Same as M2
Governance		80% of governance-related costs are included	The full governance costs are included	Same as M2
Emergency risk management or International Health Regulations		A share of laboratory costs at the district and provincial hospital level; the share applied is the same as for the infrastructure component	Same as M1, plus all costs for preparedness except poison control centres and national laboratories	Same as M2
Emergency relief (health worker hazard pay for working in distressed settings)		Included in their entirety	Included in their entirety	Included in their entirety
Facility reconstruction in post-conflict settings		Included in their entirety	Included in their entirety	Included in their entirety
Programme support costs		Included in their entirety for health sector	Included in their entirety for health sector	Included in their entirety for health sector plus additional costs for multisectoral HIV and AIDS interventions
Cash transfers to increase care seeking		Excluded	Included specifically for skilled birth attendance	Same as M2 plus included for general health-care seeking

M1=measure 1. M2=measure 2. M3=measure 3. PHC=primary health care. SDG=Sustainable Development Goal.