Kazakhstan assessed the status of Mandatory Social Health Insurance reform
On September 7, 2021, a regular meeting of the Board of the Ministry of Healthcare was held in Kazakhstan. The meeting was attended by the Minister of Healthcare Alexey Tsoy (on the photo), his First Vice-minister Marat Shoranov, Vice-Minister Azhar Giniyat, as well...
Nigeria receives four million COVID-19 vaccine doses
In March, Nigeria received about 4 million doses of AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, shipped via the COVAX Facility, a partnership between CEPI, Gavi, UNICEF and WHO. The arrival of the vaccines marked a historic step towards the goal to ensure equitable distribution...
Nigeria records another milestone, launches second phase of COVID-19 vaccination
On August 16, 2021, Nigeria launched the second phase of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign; a continuous effort towards curbing the spread of the disease in the country. At a symbolic event to mark the second phase at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Abuja,...
Nigeria’s financing of health care during the COVID-19 pandemic: challenges and recommendations
In this study, the authors analyse the financing of Nigeria’s healthcare system in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They use the three health care financing functions: revenue collection, pooling, and purchasing. The findings show that Nigeria projected that it...
COVID-19 and progress towards achieving universal health coverage (UHC) in Nigeria
Nigeria like other low and middle-income countries made a commitment towards attaining UHC by 2030. The arrival of COVID‐19 poses additional pressure on the already weak health system, which in turn affects the provision of other equally important essential health...
Assessment of the national health insurance scheme (NHIS) in Nigeria
Nigeria launched its NHIS in 2005, however, only 5% of Nigerians have health insurance and 70% still finance their healthcare through out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditure. Understanding the contextualized perspectives of stakeholders involved in NHIS is critical to...
Nigeria: national health accounts (NHA) 2017
The NHA documents and characterizes the flow of resources in a country’s health sector. Policy makers and administrators use the NHA to learn from past expenditure and improve planning and allocation of resources throughout the system, thereby increasing efficiency...
Out-of-pocket (OOP) payments, catastrophic health expenditure and poverty among households in Nigeria
Despite the operationalisation of the national health insurance scheme in 2005, high reliance on OOP health payments as a means of financing health system in Nigeria persists. OOP health payments can generate catastrophic expenditures leading to household...
Nigeria’s national health insurance scheme (NHIS) strategic plan: 2020-2030
Considerable efforts aimed at strengthening the health system to ensure delivery of effective, affordable and efficient services at all levels without financial hardship and achieve better health outcomes have been implemented over the years. To advance this goal, the...
Malaysia’s government seeks $11 billion more in Covid fund
Malaysia’s government plans to increase funds for Covid-19 support measures and raise the country’s statutory debt ceiling. The government considers adding 45 billion Malaysian ringgit ($10.8 billion) to the Covid-19 fund in order to support businesses...
Covid-19: Ten million Malaysians to receive financial aid
Malaysia allocates RM3.1 billion for implementing Covid-19 special assistance (BKC), aiming to reduce the impacts of COVID-19, starting from September 6. BKC provides to 4.4 million households that include 1.1 million single senior citizens and 4.5 million single...
Smaller firms receives COVID wage subsidy in New Zealand
New Zealand paid over $876 million for the Covid-19 wage subsidy scheme so far to support more than a quarter of the country's employees affected by COVID-19. Of the 781,364 jobs are covered under the scheme, 14 percent were for self-employed workers....
Philippines provides cash aid to COVID-infected employees
In the Philippines, workers who had been infected with COVID-19 can now apply for financial support to the Employees’ Compensation Commission (ECC) through a courier service. This benefit covers both sickness and death due to COVID-19. The COVID-19 has been added into...
NIGER: Creation of the Institut National d’Assistance Médicale (INAM)
Extract from the Council of Ministers held this Wednesday, September 23, 2021 under the chairmanship of the President of the Republic of Niger, SEM Mohamed BAZOUM. The Council of Ministers has adopted a draft decree creating a social public establishment called the...
What Nigeria must do to achieve universal health coverage (UHC)
At a stakeholders meeting to deliberate on ways to strengthen community systems towards achieving UHC, the consensus was that Nigeria must improve on its health sector financing if the country is to meet the UHC target by 2030. The president of the Nigerian medical...