Comprehensive Health Insurance Forum: Health systems concepts have evolved and aim to respond to non-medical needs
Dr. said. Awad Matariya, Director of Universal Health Coverage at the World Health Organization for the Middle East Region, said that the concepts of health systems have evolved over time, and aim to improve the health situation, respond to non-medical needs, and financial protection, as it ensures free treatment of the poor.
The Director of Universal Health Coverage at the World Health Organization for the Middle East Region added, during the first media forum of the General Authority for Comprehensive Health Insurance, Universal health coverage means that all individuals and communities obtain complete, good quality, and effective health services, without suffering from financial difficulties. It includes promotive, preventive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative services, and the service is being expanded all the time. This coverage is related to social inclusion and equality, and is linked to all Components of the health system, which are carried out through specific financing methods.
He said that 4.5 billion people in the world have access to comprehensive health coverage, and more than a quarter of the world’s population suffers from large health spending, which has deteriorated over the last 20 years. There are 679 million people in the Eastern Mediterranean, and 8 low-income countries suffer from challenges in health coverage, and there are 11 middle-income countries, including Egypt, seek to provide comprehensive care, and there is not rapid progress in the Eastern Mediterranean region in covering services, and financial protection is not moving in the right direction. Correct.
In Egypt, there are no recent studies of spending on health, and the last study was in 2017, and 31.1% of the population spent more than 10% of their income on health spending, and 6.1% spent 25% of income on health.< /span>
Dr. indicated. Awad Matariya said that there are several lessons learned, the first of which is redirecting the health system towards a primary health care approach, and the second is the experience of Thailand, where full population coverage cannot be achieved without relying heavily on public funding.
The third lesson learned is the experience of Turkey, which has created a set of services to ensure access to them, considering that this is the key to progress, in which the government pays insurance premiums for those who are unable, provides social health financing, and provides a comprehensive basic benefits package for all, and supplies are also purchased in this experience. And medicines through strategic purchasing “unified purchasing”.
The fourth lesson is the experience of China, which relies on funding, but it is insufficient, and the fifth is the experience of the Philippines and Thailand, where they focused on improving the basics and spent many years doing so, as Thailand spent 10 years building the capacity to provide services, and the Philippines focused on insurance coverage. Despite the difficulty of providing services.
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