Health Care in Asia and the Pacific: Increasing the focus on social health insurance

Abstract

This paper focuses on health insurance reform within the broader frameworks of both social security and health services system development. In most countries in Asia and the Pacific, it is indeed the reform of the health services system, through policy changes in health care financing, that has led to an increased focus on health insurance. The underlying issue in this reform is the shift in responsibility that has taken place in most countries in the region over recent years. In the past, governments were responsible for financing health care for their populations. This shifted to defining, legislating and implementing an appropriate health care financing mechanism, presenting several challenges: to reach universal health insurance coverage through new initiatives for new populations, mainly the informal sector accounting for the majority of the population in almost all these countries; to apply provider payment systems that enable control over costs and the volume of utilization; and to strengthen primary health care as a foundation for rational utilization and more resources for prevention, including prevention of chronic diseases among the ageing population. This approach will require an active partnership between health insurance schemes and government that should reflect the new division of responsibilities to guarantee access to high‐quality health care for all.