Historically, Kazakhstan has adopted two benefits packages with the launch of the Mandatory Social Health Insurance reform nationally in January 2020. One was the guaranteed volume of free medical care, universally accessible by all regardless of the insurance status, and the second benefits package was the mandatory social health insurance package, available to the insured.
On May 19, 2023, the Vice Minister of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan Timur Sultangaziyev announced that a legislative framework was prepared to combine the financial flows of the two packages – the guaranteed free care, and mandatory social health insurance care – into a single pool, which will simplify the administration of packages for medical workers and ease the process of providing medical care to patients.
“At the legislative level a program of guarantees for guaranteed volume of free medical care and the mandatory health insurance system was adopted. The Guarantee Program will have a clear delineation of packages, which will allow regulating the process of care provision under the available resources,” Timur Sultangaziyev said.
Earlier, Sabit Akhmetov, CEO of the Social Health Insurance Fund, said that with the introduction of contributory health insurance, two sources of funding were developed and, accordingly, two packages of medical care were created. The first was the free state medical care and the second was the insurance package. “However, certain medical care such as outpatient consultative and diagnostic services and inpatient care have been provided across both packages – were duplicated. Not to mention the population, the health care organizations were confused between these packages,” he explained.
