The Malawian MOH’s request for P4H support is part of a longer Deliberation process on health financing reforms for Malawi.
The Malawi Ministry of Health published a health financing situation Analysis in May 2013 and drafted a Health Financing Strategy based on this. Attached here is the third draft of the HFS.
The point of departure is the need to address the serious underfunding of the health system. The picture on public funding is mixed: Malawi performs above average for Africa in collecting revenue (24.5% of GDP in 2010), but Government allocated less than 7% of the domestically financed budget to health. This is about 7 USD per capita. This compares to costs of the essential health package estimated at 44 USD. Donor financing is considerable but highly fragmented, especially since corruption scandals were uncovered some years ago.
The specific focus on health insurance, which is mentioned in the MOH’s request for support, is based on subchapter 3.4.2 of the HFS(p. 29), where it is outlined that insurance may support the financing of non-EHP services. Reportedly, the MOH is clear that a large part of the population will need to have their contributions subsidized (partially or fully).
In this context, the objective of the support requested is to develop a plan for comprehensively assessing the added value of installing a National Social Health Insurance scheme in Malawi vis-a-vis other health financing options. The local GIZ contacts informed that the process is open and there is no predetermined outcome (in favour of SHI or otherwise).
Who would be interested in jointly supporting Malawi in this endeavour?
PS: Here a link to a very recent article on health financing reform in Malawi from Global Health Check, looking at alternative approaches:
