Creating and Implementing a Health Benefits Policy for UHC

Please join the Joint Learning Network (JLN) Primary Health Care Initiative Health Benefits Policy Collaborative for a webinar on Creating and Implementing a Health Benefits Policy for UHC on Thursday, October 25, at 8:00am EDT.

Countries that are dedicated to achieving universal health coverage want a scheme that covers all individuals but covering a full suite of medical services for the entire population is often impractical and would exceed available resources. Tradeoffs are inherent in all coverage schemes, including which services to cover, which populations to cover, and how much covered individuals should pay out of pocket for services. The reality of resource limitations means that the design of the health benefits package must take into account the financial, technical, and economic capabilities of the country’s health system. Failure to account for country capacity can lead to implicit rationing that may not align with country priorities.

The benefits package should be scaled to available resources and capacities and the health system that implements the package should be coordinated in a way that enables covered services to be accessed by beneficiaries. These coordinating policies or regulations are what we refer to as health benefits policies.

During this webinar, we will introduce four new resources that provide guidance on this important topic:

• The Primary Care Benefits Policy Framework
• Designing Health Benefits Policies: A Country Assessment Guide
• Designing Health Benefits Policies: Lessons from Six JLN Countries
• Designing Health Benefits Policies: Country Assessments from Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Mali, Morocco and Vietnam

Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions and hear presentations on the experiences and lessons learned in creating comprehensive health benefits policies that enable access to newly entitled services.

We hope you will join us to learn more about exciting new resources to support health benefits policy assessment and implementation and to learn first hand from implementers!