Thai cabinet approves 42-billion-baht for business affected by COVID
Thai cabinet has approved a 42-billion-baht package of financial assistance for people and businesses affected by the government's partial Covid-19 lockdown, currently implemented in Bangkok and nine other provinces to contain the coronavirus outbreak. For more...
Singapore approves $451,000 for people under vaccine injury scheme
Singapore approves a total of $451,000 to cover more than 100 individuals under the vaccine injury scheme. Of total applications, 102 applications were assessed by the Clinical Panel to have met the qualifying criteria for Vaccine Injury Financial Assistance...
Philippines now covers cartridge based PCR tests
The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) is now paying for SARS-CoV-2 testing using cartridge-based polymerase chain reaction or PCR tests. The new benefit package ranges from Php 1,059 to Php 2,287 and will be paid directly to the accredited testing...
Thai cabinet temporarily approves cut of social security contributions for the informal sector workers
Thai cabinet has approved 60 percent reduction of contributions for informal sector workers or people who are insured under section 40 of the Social Security Act for six months, aiming for mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 situation. For more...
Public sector reforms gather momentum and Malawi introduces revenue generation in health facilities
The Malawi health sector is predominantly donor funded (about 58% of the total health expenditure). To ensure reliable and sustainable financing of the health sector, the government of Malawi has embarked on a number of reforms through innovative health financing. One...
Sovereign creditors call for a creditor committee to be formed to restructure Ethiopia’s debt
Ethiopia plans to seek a restructuring of its sovereign debt under a new G20 common framework and is looking at all the available options, the country’s finance ministry announced earlier this year. The Paris Club of sovereign creditors has now called for a...
Equity focused QI for effective UHC: the Ethiopia healthcare quality initiative
An analysis published in BMJ describes the Ethiopia healthcare quality initiative and lessons learned to inform the way Quality Improvement (QI) is designed, implemented, and how success is defined. The authors argue that QI must move beyond only...
Mauritania: Amending Finance Law 2021, the prority to health!
The rectifying finance bill adopted by Mauritanian MPs on June 29 gives pride of place to the health sector. Indeed, this bill provides for budget cuts in almost all ministerial departments, with the exception of the one in charge of social welfare issues. The bill...
Mali: CANAM balances its duty of accountability with the need to strengthen its action
In Bamako, as in other parts of Mali, many citizens are unhappy that certain medicines are not covered by the Assurance Maladie Obligatoire (AMO). This week, the Caisse Nationale d'Assurance Maladie (CANAM) claims to be hard at work revising the list of drugs...
Leveraging Primary Health Care Systems for COVID-19: Insights from Ethiopia’s Health Extension Program
The International Institute for Primary Health Care – Ethiopia (IIFPHC-E) is offering a new course entitled “Leveraging Primary Health Care Systems for COVID-19: Insights from Ethiopia’s Health Extension Program (HEP).” This short course is free for all and...
Evidence-based recommendations for Armenia to improve the Basic Benefit Package for UHC
The World Bank staff and external contributors have produced a report titled “Reforming the Basic Benefits Package in Armenia: Modeling Insights from the Health Interventions Prioritization Tool”. The full text of the report is available here, and on this page (see...
UN HLM on UHC Country Advocacy Meetings: Ethiopia
In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on June 2, 2019, 60 representatives of national and international NGOs, professional associations, faith-based organizations, community-based organizations, private sector, and charitable organizations met to discuss advocacy ahead United...
Ethiopia renews its commitment to Universal Health Coverage
The Federal Ministry of Health of Ethiopia renews its commitment to actions towards universal health coverage (UHC). The re-definition of the Essential Health Service Packages (EHSP), which the Global Health Priorities Research Group is involved in, is defined as one...
PHL administers 12.7 million coronavirus vaccines
The Philippines provides 12.7 million coronavirus vaccines to the population as of July 8. Fully vaccinated individuals consist of more than 1.16 million health workers, 861,560 seniors, about one million seriously ill people, and 103,990 essential workers. For...
Sri Lanka devises comprehensive mechanism to vaccinate majority of population before September
Sri Lanka plans to vaccinate a majority of the country’s population against the COVID-19 virus before September. The received vaccines in July will be made available to the public. The vaccine priority is given to the districts identified as high risk areas...