The Webinar Series on health financing in India kicked off on 18 August 2021 to discuss the burning health financing and social health protection issues in the country and debate potential ways forward. The four-webinar series is organised by P4H in collaboration with ACCESS Health International (AHI) and the India Health Systems Collaborative (IHSC). The first webinar titled “Health Financing Arrangements for Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in India” was attended by 93 national and international health financing experts and researchers.
In the introductory session, both the keynote speakers, Krishna Reddy and Claude Meyer, highlighted the need for equitable and sustainable health financing systems to address the issue of high out-of-pocket expenditures in India which often result in catastrophic expenditures and impoverishment of vulnerable populations. They envisaged P4H playing a larger role on this topic through collaborations, capacity building and fostering a safe space for dialogue
In the next session, health financing experts from Ethiopia, Vietnam and Kazakhstan were invited to present their P4H work experiences on their journey towards UHC. The Ethiopian experience of Community Based Health Insurance scheme is an example of a community’s resolve towards achieving UHC. The new Kazakh Social Health Insurance scheme that promises free primary health care services for all but specialized outpatient services and elective in-patient care for contributing employees, employers, and vulnerable population groups is another way forward on the path to UHC. And finally, Vietnam’s Social Health Insurance scheme and its reforms of cost control, effective fund management, coverage expansion, expansion of benefit packages, and strengthening the grassroots health care system, could provide useful lessons for India on its journey towards UHC.
Following this, a panel discussed the various challenges around health financing for UHC in India. The panel consisted of five health financing experts from India (Prof. Indrani Gupta, IEG, Delhi; Nishant Jain, GIZ India; Gautam Chakrabarty, USAID India; Vaibhav Raaj, ILO India and Lalit Baveja, Milliman) and Aungsumalee Pholpark, P4H Asian Network Community Manager from Thailand. The panellists focussed on the recent health financing reforms in India from Ayushman Bharat to Employee’s State Insurance (ESI) to private health insurance and their role in progress towards UHC.
The panellists suggested that the reforms require immediate injection of finances for a multi-pronged approach – targeted coverage expansion, developing linkages with the primary care network, bundling a generous but actuarially costed benefits, and finally cost containment through a gatekeeping system, with purchaser-provider split and provider payment reforms to make swift but sustainable progress towards achieving UHC. How India generates the resources needed to operationalise these reforms and in what time, remains to be seen.
The next webinar will focus into health financing arrangements during COVID-19. The discussants will explore the various health financing choices for reducing catastrophes during the pandemic and regaining lost ground in UHC.
P4H acts as an honest broker to bring together national and international health financing experts, providing a space for dialogue and knowledge sharing. Please click here to watch the video on YouTube and subscribe to the P4H YouTube channel to know more about our work.
