Universal Health Coverage (UHC) has become synonymous with health insurance, even though different countries take different paths towards it. Many countries have been able to provide near universal coverage through various insurance schemes and government subsidies that have reduced out-of-pocket expenditure over time, but these have come with their own set of challenges.

The focus of this model has been skewed towards curative services at secondary and tertiary level, resulting in lack of integration with primary care, especially preventive and promotive services. While countries have attempted to rebuild primary health services, create referral systems and integrate preventive and promotive services to rationalise care and provide comprehensive services, it has been challenging to reverse the order of care. This has resulted in rising costs of medical care, co-payments and inequities in access and utilisation. There are supply-side issues that either remain unchallenged or are difficult to address due to entrenched path dependencies, and therefore reforms remain mostly incremental.

This discussion focuses on China, Indonesia and Thailand that have taken the insurance route towards attaining UHC. We discuss the implications and challenges for integration of health services and equity in access and utilisation. We distil learnings and insights from these countries’ experiences for India.

Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_hWl07BBMRdajkqHTc8Scvg

Winnie Yip: Dr. Winnie Yip is currently Professor of Global Health Policy and Economics in the Department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She also serves as the Faculty Director of the school-wide China Health Partnership, and recently completed her appointment as Acting Director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University. Dr. Yip was previously a Professor of Health Policy and Economics at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. She is also a member of the National Committee on United States-China Relations (NCUSCR) Track II Health Dialogues and is immediate past President of the International Health Economics Association (IHEA). She has consulted for numerous international agencies including the World Bank and the World Health Organization. Dr. Yip holds a PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Viroj Tangcharoensathien: Dr. Viroj Tangcharoensathien is Senior Advisor, International Health Policy Program (IHPP), Ministry of Public Health, Thailand and Vice Chair, International Health Policy Program Foundation. He received the Thai Medical Association’s Best Rural Doctor Award in 1986. He completed a PhD in Health Financing at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), through a Rockefeller Foundation Scholarship (1987-1990). His thesis won the Woodruff Medal in 1991 for the most outstanding PhD thesis. In 1998 he won the prestigious Senior Research Scholar award from the Thailand Research Fund. Also in 1998, he co-founded the International Health Policy Program (IHPP), an arm-length quasi-public research institute affiliated with the Thailand Ministry of Public Health. He received the Edwin Chadwick Medal in 2011 for his contributions to improve health systems in the interests of the poor; and the Sam Adjei Distinguished Public Service Award in 2018 by the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research and Health Systems Global. He received the WHO Director-General’s Health Leaders 2019 Award in recognition of his outstanding leadership in Global Health.

John C. Langenbrunner: Dr. John (“Jack”) Langenbrunner is a Health Economist with both research and operations experience and is a Senior Advisor for Financing and Health Insurance. He has worked in India since 2015. He was a Senior Officer with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation from 2015-2018, and with the new Health Systems Transformation Platform (HSTP) in 2019-2020. Jack was a co-author of the NITI Aayog book “Health System for a New India: Building Blocks” in November 2019. Prior to this, he was a Lead Health Economist for the World Bank, and coordinated a Health Financing and Health Insurance Thematic Group within the Bank. He led the Bank’s Global Expert Team for Health Financing and Health Systems in 2011-2013. He has extensive experience in countries in Asia, Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Previous to his work at the Bank, Jack was with the US Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the US program for over 80 million Americans, and with the US Office of Management and Budget. In the mid-1990s, he served on the Clinton Health Care Reform Task Force for the US White House. Jack holds graduate degrees in Economics (Masters) and Public Health (Doctorate) from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Nachiket Mor:Dr. Nachiket Mor is trained as an economist. His current work is principally focused on the design of national and regional health systems. He is a Visiting Scientist at The Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health and a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Information Technology and Public Policy at IIIT Bangalore. He is also a Commissioner on the Lancet Citizens’ Commission on Reimagining India’s Health System.

Madhurima Nundy: Dr. Madhurima Nundy is a Fellow in Health and Human Development at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress, New Delhi. She holds a PhD in Public Health from the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She completed her MPhil from the same centre. Previously, she was Assistant Director and Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS), Delhi (2012-21) and Senior Programme Coordinator at the Public Health Resource Network, New Delhi (2009-12). Among other experiences, she was a Technical Consultant with the National Commission on Macroeconomics and Health (2004-05) and a Research Associate at the Institute of Social Studies Trust (1999-2001). Her areas of interest include studying different health service systems, health policies and inequalities in health. She has several publications to her name.

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