Thai cabinet approves 42-billion-baht for business affected by COVID
Thai cabinet has approved a 42-billion-baht package of financial assistance for people and businesses affected by the government's partial Covid-19 lockdown, currently implemented in Bangkok and nine other provinces to contain the coronavirus outbreak. For more...
Philippines now covers cartridge based PCR tests
The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) is now paying for SARS-CoV-2 testing using cartridge-based polymerase chain reaction or PCR tests. The new benefit package ranges from Php 1,059 to Php 2,287 and will be paid directly to the accredited testing...
Singapore approves $451,000 for people under vaccine injury scheme
Singapore approves a total of $451,000 to cover more than 100 individuals under the vaccine injury scheme. Of total applications, 102 applications were assessed by the Clinical Panel to have met the qualifying criteria for Vaccine Injury Financial Assistance...
Thai cabinet temporarily approves cut of social security contributions for the informal sector workers
Thai cabinet has approved 60 percent reduction of contributions for informal sector workers or people who are insured under section 40 of the Social Security Act for six months, aiming for mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 situation. For more...
Public sector reforms gather momentum and Malawi introduces revenue generation in health facilities
The Malawi health sector is predominantly donor funded (about 58% of the total health expenditure). To ensure reliable and sustainable financing of the health sector, the government of Malawi has embarked on a number of reforms through innovative health financing. One...
Equity focused QI for effective UHC: the Ethiopia healthcare quality initiative
An analysis published in BMJ describes the Ethiopia healthcare quality initiative and lessons learned to inform the way Quality Improvement (QI) is designed, implemented, and how success is defined. The authors argue that QI must move beyond only...
Evidence-based recommendations for Armenia to improve the Basic Benefit Package for UHC
The World Bank staff and external contributors have produced a report titled “Reforming the Basic Benefits Package in Armenia: Modeling Insights from the Health Interventions Prioritization Tool”. The full text of the report is available here, and on this page (see...
Can Armenia Better Leverage its Basic Benefit Package for Universal Health Coverage?
Nicole Fraser, Adanna Chukwuma, Marianna Koshkakaryan, Lusine Yengibaryan, Xiaohui Hou, Tommy Wilkinson, Christina Meyer When Armenia introduced its first Basic Benefits Package (BBP) in 1997, the average life expectancy at birth was 70 years and the under-five...
Thailand plans to use public funds to cover cost of home care for COVID patients
National Health Security Office, Thailand will cover costs of home care for asymptomatic or mild-symptom COVID-19 patients, aiming to reduce crowd in the hospitals, especially in Bangkok and metropolitan area. Home care includes online consulting with physicians,...
Malaysia announces massive COVID-19 aid package as Thailand tightens restrictions
Malaysia announced a public spending 150 billion ringgit ($36.2 billion) for aid and stimulus package to battle the COVID-19 outbreaks. Moreover, Malaysia plans to allocate another 1 billion ringgit ($241 million) to ramp up its inoculation program,...
Indonesia increases public funding for hospitals in critical condition due to Covid-19
Indonesia increases healthcare budget to 193.93 trillion rupiah ($13.39 billion) for coronavirus treatment, testing, tracing, drugs, vaccines and protective gear. In addition, telemedicine service has been introduced to non-critical patients, aiming to reduce pressure...
Minimum sick leave entitlement to increase to 10 days in New Zealand
New Zealand has passed the Holidays Amendment Bill to increase the minimum employee sick leave entitlement from 5 days to 10 days per year, starting from 24 July 2021 onwards. For more information, please click Source: Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment,...
Singapore increases public subsidies for health premiums to senior citizens
Singapore increases annual public subsidies of MediSave for seniors citizens from $250 to $1,100 based on age and pre-existing conditions. MediSave can be used to pay the premiums for MediShield Life and other MediSave-approved insurance plans, as well as medical...
Accelerating broad and equitable access to the COVID-19 vaccine in Ethiopia
In an effort to accelerate fair and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, the World Bank is providing additional financing to the Ethiopia COVID-19 Emergency Response Project in the form of a grant totaling $207 million to finance vaccine acquisition and deployment...
The Government of Viet Nam specifies how Covid-19 related consultations and tests will be financed by the Health Insurance
https://vss.gov.vn/english/news/Pages/vietnam-social-security.aspx?ItemID=9913&CateID=198