Brunei’s Global Health Security Index Improvement in 2021
The Global Health Security (GHS) Index is an assessment and benchmarking of health security and related capabilities across 195 countries, aiming to inform foundation elements that need to be prepared for future pandemics. The GHS Index has six categories: (1)...
Australian Government now funds half the cost of rapid test for close contacts
To curb COVID-19 spending, the Australian Government stops providing free rapid antigen testing (RAT). However, tests are still freely provided for health reasons and partly subsidized for those who are considered close contacts. While discounted RAT for concession...
MOU for moving towards the Universal Health Coverage in Laos
In Laos, the 3rd phase of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the contribution to Universal Health Coverage was signed between the National Health Insurance Bureau, the Ministry of Health, and the Swiss Red Cross. The partnership under this MOU will provide...
SENEGAL-SOCIAL PROTECTION: The General Delegate for Social Protection and National Solidarity takes stock
More than a million households benefited from food assistance during Covid-19, and 186 billion 950 million CFA francs were invested in the social grants program, according to Aminata Sow. In this interview, the Déléguée générale à la protection sociale et la...
BURKINA: A look at the health budget
The problems faced by referral hospitals in Burkina Faso have much more to do with the budget that the State allocates to the field. This is well below the 15% commitment contained in the 2001 Abuja Declaration. To boost health funding, African states agreed a joint...
Joint external evaluation of IHR core capacities of the Kingdom of Cambodia
"This report is the product of a joint external evaluation (JEE) of the Kingdom of Cambodia’s capacity to prevent, detect and rapidly respond to public health threats of a natural, deliberate or accidental nature. The assessment used the World Health Organization...
UEMOA regulation on social mutuality
REGLEMENT N°07/2009/CM/UEMOA PORTANT REGLEMENTATION DE LA MUTUALITE SOCIALE AU SEIN DE L'UEMOA
Ethiopia commemorates UHC Day with a high-level advocacy event
The advocacy event was organized by the Ethiopian Ministry of Health (MoH) together with other sector ministries, World Health Organization (WHO), Save the Children and the Consortium of Christian Relief and Development Associations (CCRDA). The aim of the event...
PhilHealth speeds up reimbursement to hospitals
To ensure social health protection of the members, Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) has implemented a new payment mechanism or the so-called “Debit-Credit Payment Method”, aiming to enable fast track reimbursement to qualified hospitals that...
Health financing for Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): a systematic review
The world health organisation defines UHC as everyone having access to required health services of high quality without suffering financial hardship. UHC is embedded within the 3.8 target of sustainable development goals. To attain the UHC goal, there is need for...
Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and the Abuja declaration: Honouring the pledge
The 2001 Abuja declaration is a pledge by the African Union member states to allocate at least 15% of their national budgets each year to improving their healthcare systems. However, for the countries in the SADC, fulfilling this pledge has been a challenge. Having...
A review of out-of-pocket (OOP) payments for health services under insurance regimes: A policy implementation gap hindering universal health coverage (UHC) in the sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)
One of the key targets of sustainable development goal 3.8 is UHC which requires that all persons irrespective of their social economic background should have access to quality health services when required without incurring financial hardship. To attain this goal,...
Japan braces itself against the COVID-19 pandemic with the largest ever budget for 2022
Japan's cabinet has approved a record ¥107.60 trillion budget for 2022 to fight against the pandemic and increasing social security costs. Social security spending is more than a third of the overall budget to address the medical needs of the aging population. The...
Maldives join hands with Indonesia to develop their health sector
Maldives has signed an MoU with Indonesia to share knowledge, initiate expert visits, strengthen health regulatory capacity and provide support in healthcare services, health resilience, health financing, health human resources, and health technology. To know more,...
P4H 2020-2021 annual review
What happened between June 2020 and June 2021? The P4H Network's annual review takes a look back at the highlights of healthcare and social protection financing. Download the full document here.