The Covid 19 outbreak continues to strain healthcare providers physically and financially and extra work always comes with extra costs. The National Health Security Office (NHSO) is trying to adjust its financial reimbursement system to better cope with the...
Financial accessibility issues to COVID treatments noted in Bangladesh
A recent study conducted by the Health Economics Unit of the Bangladesh Ministry of Health highlights cost differences between treatments of COVID patients in public versus private facilities. For example, while the average cost of ICU treatment in the public sector...
Impact of COVID-19 on health care utilization and medical expenditure in the Republic of Korea in 2020
Written by Eunkyoung Kim and Tomas Roubal The Republic of Korea (ROK) has been regarded as one of successful countries in their response to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). As of 28 April 2021, ROK has reported 120,673 cumulative confirmed COVID-19 cases and 1,821...
Economics of COVID‑19: Challenges and Way Forward for Health Policy in India
The emergence of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19) pandemic provides unique challenges for the health system. In this paper, the authors used economic underpinnings to explain several of these challenges and suggest a way forward for health policy, during, and...
Niger health accounts report 2019
Covid-19 Poses Challenges in Healthcare Financing
In Singapore, the most apparent cost of this epidemic is the cost of providing direct medical care and public health services such as screening tests and ICU (intensive care unit) care for those affected. Since the indirect and intangible losses are not easy to...
Sri Lanka launches the COVID–19 Healthcare and Social Security Fund
The Government of Sri Lanka set up ‘COVID-19 Healthcare and Social Security Fund’ on 23rd March 2020, to strengthen the activities aimed at controlling the spread of COVID-19 virus in the country and to support the related social welfare programmes in...
Japan’s Hospitals Face Financial Hardships Under COVID-19
Since November 2020, when the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic started in earnest, Japanese hospitals are finding it harder to get by financially. Compared to the previous year, the number of inpatients and outpatients had decreased and although...
Additional Fund Approved by the Cabinet to Acquire COVID-19 Vaccine
The 'Thai' Cabinet has approved an additional fund of 6,387.29 million baht from the central fund of the 2021 national expenditure to acquire 35 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca, so that the people of Thailand will have access to the vaccine. Out of...
Indonesia approves free COVID-19 vaccine drive by private companies
The Indonesian government said it would allow private companies to run coronavirus vaccination programs for workers and families alongside a nationwide drive to expedite efforts in achieving herd immunity. “The companies will provide the vaccines for free for...
Validation of the results of the health accounts in Niger, fiscal year 2019
In February 2021, Niger organized the national virtual workshop to validate the results of its twelfth health accounts report dedicated to fiscal year 2019. The main results from the health accounts are summarized below: - National healthcare spending has risen over...
Validation of the results of the health accounts in Niger, fiscal year 2019
In February 2021, Niger organized the national virtual workshop to validate the results of its twelfth health accounts report dedicated to fiscal year 2019. The main results from the health accounts are summarized below: - National healthcare spending has risen over...
Mass testing for COVID-19 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia: “One door-one test” approach
In response to the recent increase of COVID 19, the Mongolian government initiated a mass testing campaign, the so-called “One door-one test” (ODOT), which utilised PCR assays to test one family member (age>18) from each of the 420,000 households in the capital...
Over $ 1.1 bn to Extend Australia’s Covid 19 Health Response
The Australian Government invests more than $1.1 billion to extend their successful national COVID-19 health response and suppression strategy until 31 December 2021. This $1.1 billion is in addition to more than $22 billion spent in these areas to date,...
WHO publication on value-based health services
From value for money to value-based health services: a twenty-first century shift Overview: Health policy makers around the world have long shown interest in the value created by health systems and this preoccupation will likely only intensify in the current context...