The newly-appointed Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Mr Alikhan Smailov held a meeting on improving the efficiency of the healthcare system.
The head of government criticized lack of coordination and effectiveness in management of public health expenditure by the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF), reports the press service of the Cabinet of Ministers of Kazakhstan.
In 2021, public health spending amounted to 2.3 trillion tenge, or 2.9% of GDP. About 90% of the republican budget funds for health care (central budget funds) are administered by the SHIF.
Smailov instructed to develop a clear system of indicators on effectiveness of spending and monitoring the activities of the Fund.
“Today, 100% of medical services in the regions are centrally financed from the Fund, which leads to the dilution of responsibility for arranging medical care. This was especially evident last year, when problems arose with the financing of the ambulance services in Almaty and Zhanaozen,” said the Prime-Minister, and gave the Government a task to start a phased transfer of funding for the guaranteed volume of free medical care (the basic benefits package for all) to the local level.
Source: Forbes Kazakhstan (in Russian).
