Indonesian Workers to Rally in Jakarta Over Universal Health Coverage
(The Jakarta Globe) - Thousands of workers are scheduled to rally in Jakarta on Wednesday to demand that the government accelerate the implementation of universal health coverage in Indonesia.
“Some 10,000 protesters will join the demonstration in Greater Jakarta on Wednesday, and the demonstration will start in Bundaran HI at 10 a.m,” Said Iqbal, the president of the Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions (KSPI), said on Tuesday.
He stated that the protesters will march to the Ministry of Health in Kuningan, South Jakarta, at 2 p.m. to demand that the government implement health care coverage for all Indonesians by January 2014.
The government has announced that its health care plan would be instituted in several phases and would cover all Indonesians by 2019.
The demonstrators will also request that the government include workers who get paid minimum wage to be included in the Premium Payment Assistance (PBI) program.
Benin health delegation in Ghana to understudy NHIS
(CitiFMOnline) - An 8-member delegation from the Republic of Benin is in the country on a study tour of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
The visit by the Beninois team comes days after a similar call by officials of the Ethiopian health sector. The high-level delegation made up of the leadership of the Benin’s Health Insurance Agency and health service arrived in the country at the weekend for a 5-day visit.
Mr Nathaniel Otoo, Director of Administration and General Counsel of the NHIA in welcoming the delegation said Ghana is happy to share her experiences in health insurance with others across the continent and the world at large.
He said the study visit by the Beninois team will among others deepen South-South cooperation and provide a forum for knowledge sharing.
According to him, “Africa is on the threshold of making progress in health insurance and Ghana is happy to be making progress.”
Mr Otoo also added that the NHIA is in the process of establishin
Community health workers means to universal health care
(The Standard) - As the new Government works out a formula for delivering on the campaign pledge regarding provision of health care, experts say that deployment of community health workers holds the key to extending health care delivery and improving health outcomes.
They say there is good evidence that when implemented well, community based health programmes reduce infant and child mortality and morbidity; increase numbers of women delivering in health institutions and increase immunisation rates.
Writing in the current issue of the Bulletin of the World Health Organisation, the authors say their findings had shown that community health workers (CHWs), who currently work virtually as volunteers, can be particularly effective for addressing the most common causes of paediatric mortality and morbidity, such as pneumonia, diarrhoea, under-nutrition, malaria and HIV/Aids.
CHWs are lay people who live in the communities they serve.
How Kenya can achieve universal health care for all
(Standard Digital) - (This article is written by Isaac Nzyoka, Head of Medical Division at UAP) The question of health provision to Kenyans of all walks of life has been at the center of public discourse for more than a year.
Recently however, the focus has shifted to raising taxes to fund the National Hospital Insurance Fund at the rate of a maximum of Sh2,000 person per month. The jury is still out on this one as the courts have halted its implementation.
As Kenyans wait for the newly elected government to take office, there is no doubt that most people are waiting with bated breath for the common man’s issues to be addressed — and they are myriad. Healthcare, particularly for every citizen, remains a sticking point.
Andhra Pradesh to invest Rs 4L cr for new health plan
(The Times of India) - The state government will invest around Rs 4 lakhcrore in order to implement the universal healthcare scheme, which aims to provide quality healthcare facilities to people, health minister D L Ravindra Reddy said on Sunday.
The Congress had swept to power for the second term in 2009 on the back of its flagship programmes like the Rajiv Aarogyasri, a state-funded health insurance scheme. With the Assembly elections around the corner, the government has turned its focus on health again. The state is now keen to quickly implement the ambitious universal healthcare scheme, which was part of the 12{+t}{+h} five year plan. As part of the scheme, it plans to improve primary healthcare facilities by several notches and provide sanitation for poorest of the poor.
"This scheme would be implemented soon with an allotted budget of about Rs 3 to 4 lakh crores for a period of five years.
Good Health at Low Cost 25 years on: lessons for the future of health systems strengthening
(The Lancet) - In 1985, the Rockefeller Foundation published Good health at low cost to discuss why some countries or regions achieve better health and social outcomes than do others at a similar level of income and to show the role of political will and socially progressive policies. 25 years on, the Good Health at Low Cost project revisited these places but looked anew at Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kyrgyzstan, Thailand, and the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, which have all either achieved substantial improvements in health or access to services or implemented innovative health policies relative to their neighbours. A series of comparative case studies (2009—11) looked at how and why each region accomplished these changes. Attributes of success included good governance and political commitment, effective bureaucracies that preserve institutional memory and can learn from experience, and the ability to innovate and adapt to resource limitations.
Ethiopia lauds Ghana’s NHIS
(Spy Ghana) - Leader of the 13-member Ethiopian delegation that visited the country to understudy Ghana’s National Health insurance Scheme has praised Ghana for instituting a viable social protection strategy like the NHIS.
According to Roman Tesfay, who is also the Director-General of the Ethiopian Health Insurance Agency, Ghana’s model is “all encompassing” and makes adequate room for the poor.
Ms. Tesfay in delivering her team’s impression after a week’s study tour said the structure Ghana is running “is well organised.” She remarked that her team was impressed about the political commitment successive governments have made towards the sustainability of the scheme. She particularly mentioned the seamless balance between technocrats and politicians in drafting the NHIS.
“Ghana’s scheme is growing and we are happy to learn from you.
Mind the gap
(The Hindu) - While the government is extending the ambit of the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, a huge gap exists on the delivery end
When Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram announced extension of the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) — a health insurance scheme for below poverty line (BPL) families — to several other categories in his Budget speech in February, it brought a smile on the faces of the new beneficiaries.
As of now, the scheme covers 34 million BPL families and is proposed to be extended to other categories such as rickshaw, auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers, sanitation workers, rag pickers and mine workers.
Create separate body to manage NHIA’s funds – Prof Akosa
(Ghana Business News) - To improve the financing of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and make it sustainable, Professor Agyeman-Badu Akosa, a seasoned health expert, has proposed a separation of the fund management from the Scheme’s regulation.
The former Director General of the Ghana Health Service said the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) should only regulate the Scheme and leave its fund management to a separate body to ensure efficiency and sustainability.
The Scheme is currently beset with financial difficulties, and health experts have suggested other financing options since the premium payment constituted very little percentage of the overall cost of health care.
Speaking at a day’s workshop on sustainable healthcare financing for the NHIA in Accra, Prof Akosa said given the current precarious financial situation of the Authority, to ensure a sound financial footing, it was important for Ghana to follow the best practice, which is prudent manageme
Ghana revises figures on NHIS coverage
(Joy Online) - Ghana’s official delegation to a global ministerial conference on universal health access in Geneva, Switzerland, last week has conceded that a status report on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), issued by a coalition of NGOs and other civil society actors last year was useful input into government’s own assessment of its healthcare coverage.
The campaign group’s report had maintained that even though the NHIS was introduced to improve access to healthcare Ghana, there are many challenges that have culminated in the defeat of the objective of the scheme.
The Ghana Campaign on Universal Healthcare in Ghana insists there are many challenges that have culminated in the defeat of the objective of the scheme.
The Ghana Campaign on Universal Healthcare, made up of the Alliance for Reproductive Health Rights (ARHR), ISODEC, SEND Ghana, Oxfam GB and several others contended in its report that the manner in which the NHIS is funded is unfair.
This, they sa