ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a high-level overview of the book. Meeting health and healthcare needs and reducing inequalities in health and well-being are global challenges. There is a need for new initiatives, even in the presence of established welfare states and publicly funded healthcare systems. The aim of the book is to conceptualise and evidence the role of social finance in responding to specific aspects of such challenges: funding and facilitating access to health(care) services and acting on determinants of health. We do so by focusing on two of the main forms of social finance – impact bonds and microfinance.
