-
(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Expanding Health Insurance in Developing Countries
Rwanda will host a regional conference next week (9-11/13), with a focus on health insurance. Rwanda has been praised for moving toward universal coverage1 for its population. But many say it’s a complicated issue that does not have a one-size-fits-all solution.
The Conference on Social Health Protection in the East African Community will consider various approaches to providing universal health coverage in Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Burundi.
Universal coverage is the subject of a new study that reviewed health systems in 12 African and Asian countries.
The World Health Organization’s Joe Kutzin says universal coverage is more of a “direction than a destination.”
“What it means you want to move towards universal coverage, which means you want to improve access. You want to improve financial protection and you want to improve quality. And in that sense, those are goals for every country in the world. So it’s relevant to every African country, every European country, the U.S. and so on, to make progress towards those goals,” he said.
Kutzin is coordinator2 of health financing policy and analyzed3 the study published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization.
Dr. Ernst Spaan, one of the authors, said, “There is a lot of debate going on on how to finance health services in developing countries. In Asia and Africa there is a lot of debate on should they focus on social health insurance or community-based health insurance? And we actually looked into that and we found out there are a lot of studies, but it’s a bit patchy. So we decided4 to do a systematic5 review of the literature.”
Spaan is a senior researcher and lecturer in public health at the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center in the Netherlands.
The study looked at what he calls impact indicators6. These include the way financial resources are collected to fund insurance plans, the amount of coverage provided to recipients7, whether that coverage is provided to all segments of society and whether there’s been an improvement in the quality of life.
It says social and community health insurance plans “hold untapped potential” for achieving universal coverage. But Spaan says for that to happen, funding issues need to be addressed. For example, he says social plans are generally mandatory8 and may be funded through payroll9 deductions10.
“That of course poses a problem in many developing countries because of the fact that the informal sector11 is quite large. Sometimes even 60 percent of the population or higher is not in formal employment. Also because of the large agricultural sector income is dependent on harvest times, so it’s also very erratic,” said Spaan.
WHO’s Kutzin said some insurance systems may also require a user fee that’s paid at the time of medical services.
“When people have to pay a lot at the time they use services it poses a real, severe economic risk to their households. Very often you find cases where, for example, people have to sell off their assets, whether that is in cash or in animals. Whatever may be the main source of wealth, people are selling off their assets in order to raise the money to pay for care,” he said.
Spaan and his colleagues also looked at community insurance plans.
“These are organized, generally, on a smaller scale. And in many countries you find these schemes are linked to, for instance, one hospital or even to a school. So they insure school children, for instance, or they insure the people around a certain health facility. But what is more important is that it’s a certain scheme where the local population is more involved in the set-up of the scheme. And least that’s the ideal,” said Spaan.
He added that the study’s findings “back the World Health Organization’s view that pre-paid financing mechanisms12, such as health insurance, are a key route to universal coverage.”
But Kutzin said there are many ways to provide health coverage besides those presented in the study.
“One of the best known cases we have is from Thailand, which in 2002 instituted a program called the Universal Health Coverage Scheme. It’s neither community-based nor is it contributory. It is a system where the government using general tax revenues puts all of that money into a single pool. And anyone is entitled to sign-up for the program. They don’t have to contribute anything. That pool pays for services on behalf of the entire population,” he said.
He said Rwanda uses a multiple funding approach for its mandatory health coverage, including general tax revenues and donor13 funding. And it uses its community-based systems in a coordinated14 way.
Universal health coverage has been a controversial topic here in the United States, but not in many other countries. Kutzin said that’s because there has not been a clear discussion about what universal coverage is trying to achieve. He says the main question is whether two people, one rich and one poor, with the same medical condition, have access to the same treatment?
1 coverage | |
n.报导,保险范围,保险额,范围,覆盖 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 coordinator | |
n.协调人 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 analyzed | |
v.分析( analyze的过去式和过去分词 );分解;解释;对…进行心理分析 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 systematic | |
adj.有系统的,有计划的,有方法的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 indicators | |
(仪器上显示温度、压力、耗油量等的)指针( indicator的名词复数 ); 指示物; (车辆上的)转弯指示灯; 指示信号 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 recipients | |
adj.接受的;受领的;容纳的;愿意接受的n.收件人;接受者;受领者;接受器 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 mandatory | |
adj.命令的;强制的;义务的;n.受托者 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 payroll | |
n.工资表,在职人员名单,工薪总额 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 deductions | |
扣除( deduction的名词复数 ); 结论; 扣除的量; 推演 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11 sector | |
n.部门,部分;防御地段,防区;扇形 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12 mechanisms | |
n.机械( mechanism的名词复数 );机械装置;[生物学] 机制;机械作用 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
13 donor | |
n.捐献者;赠送人;(组织、器官等的)供体 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
14 coordinated | |
adj.协调的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|