Experts from 9 countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) are meeting this week at a workshop in Tbilisi, Georgia, to measure the financial difficulties people face when having to pay their health care out of pocket. Led by the WHO Barcelona Office for Health Systems Financing, the meeting is part of a new collaboration with EEAS countries to monitor financial protection – a key dimension of coverage universal health.
The workshop brings together a network of national experts – heads of national statistical offices, ministries of health and health insurance funds, as well as independent analysts – to measure 2 common indicators of financial distress in health systems. health: catastrophic and impoverishing direct payments for health care.
Catastrophic payments exceed 40% of a household’s ability to pay for health care, while impoverishing payments push households below, or even further below, the poverty line. Households facing catastrophic or impoverishing direct payments may be unable to meet other basic needs, such as food, shelter and electricity.
The network also produces up-to-date information on the design of coverage policies in each country: national decisions on who has access to publicly funded health services, the extent of the public benefit package, and whether people whether or not they have to pay user fees. charges (co-payments) for covered health services, including medications. This information allows countries to identify gaps in health care coverage that lead to financial hardship for households.
Workshop participants come from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Republic of Moldova, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
Generating new evidence on financial protection
Many of these countries are generating concrete, actionable information on financial distress for the first time. The workshop is an opportunity for them to share and interpret their discoveries. This is particularly relevant as out-of-pocket payments constitute the main source of health financing in most countries participating in the workshop, slowing progress towards universal health coverage.
Financial protection – affordable access to healthcare – is an indicator of the Sustainable Development Goals, part of the European Pillar of Social Rights and at the center of the European Work Program, the strategic framework of WHO/Europe. Through the WHO office in Barcelona, WHO/Europe monitors financial protection in more than 40 countries. The WHO Barcelona Office also provides tailored technical assistance to countries to reduce financial constraints and unmet need for health services by identifying and closing coverage gaps.