Despite having one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, Bangladesh is lagging far behind in providing standard health care services to its over 166 million people, which is deepening their woes amid the coronavirus pandemic. Their budget for the health sector is...
The resurgence of COVID-19 cases has overwhelmed the public healthcare system and overloaded the healthcare resources. Ministry of Health (MOH) Malaysia has adopted an Emergency Ordinance (EO) to instruct private hospitals to receive both COVID-19 and...
National Health Security Office (NHSO) urges hospital operators not to charge COVID-19 patients for any health services. Thai government will reimburse the hospitals for any expense incurred. Both public and private hospital operators can process the claims with...
As low- and middle-income countries undertake health financing reforms to achieve universal health coverage, there is renewed interest in making allocation of pooled funds to health-care providers more strategic. To make purchasing more strategic, countries are...
People should be at the center of UHC, so population coverage should be prioritized, especially for the most disadvantaged groups. The Philippines’ UHC law mandates that all Filipinos be given immediate access to the country’s national health insurance benefits...
ThinkWell’s Philippine UHC Law Series presents an overview of the country’s health system and the ongoing implementation of the UHC Law. This third brief in the series focuses on health financing in the Philippines, summarizes the current situation, identifies...
The Philippine UHC Law aims to prioritize primary care, mandating that each citizen must be empaneled to a primary care provider within a health care provider network (HCPN). To ensure the quality of health care services, health professional training curricula will be...
The SP4PHC project is launching a series of briefs to describe health system reforms taking place under the UHC Law, emphasizing the impact these reforms have on health financing and PHC. The series will also include narratives from our field experience in Antique and...
The use of modern contraception in the Philippines is increasing steadily but is still very low compared to regional peers. Increased modern contraceptive prevalence rate (mCPR) is a key target of the Philippine government. Private providers, especially private...
With support from the World Bank, the Global Financing Facility, and the Government of Japan, Kenya is implementing the Transforming Health Systems for Universal Care Project (THS-UCP) to improve reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health (RMNCAH)...
In late 2018, the Government of Kenya launched the Afya Care Universal Health Coverage (UHC) pilot program in four counties in Kenya. Under the initiative, county governments discontinued all user fees at secondary public hospitals and, in return, received commodities...
The SP4PHC project team in Kenya undertook a rapid review of EduAfya, a scheme launched by the Government of Kenya to provide health insurance coverage to public secondary school students. This brief assesses how the program is working, drawing on implementation...
Makueni county has launched a health financing scheme called Makueni Care, allowing registered households to access free services at public hospitals. This brief provides an overview of how the scheme works and discusses how the SP4PHC team will support the County...
Strategic Purchasing for Primary Health Care (SP4PHC) project aims to improve how governments purchase primary health care (PHC) services, with a focus on family planning (FP) and maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH). The project is supported by the Bill &...
This brief summarizes findings from a landscaping study conducted by Universitas Gadjah Mada’s (UGM) Center for Reproductive Health, ThinkWell’s learning partner. Drawing from an extensive review of the literature, interviews with key stakeholders, and focus group...
