Publication: Toward a More Pro-Poor and Explicit Health Benefit Package in the Kyrgyz Republic: A Critical Review of the State Guaranteed Benefit Package and Options for Its Revision
Date
2019-10
ISSN
Published
2019-10
Author(s)
Nguyen, Ha Thi Hong
Strizrep, Tihomir
Abstract
The Kyrgyz Republic has made significant
steps in reforming the health system through successive
National Health Programs implemented over the last 20 years.
One of the major achievements of such reforms was the
establishment of a single-payer national health insurance
and a basic benefit package. The State Guaranteed Benefit
Package (SGBP) provides free basic health services at the
primary care level for the whole population, and inpatient
care with nominal copayments or no fee for certain groups.
Even though the principles of the SGBP contain elements of
international good practice, the SGBP has hardly changed
since it was established. At the same time, many changes
have taken place within and outside the health system,
exerting mounting pressure for the SGBP to adapt to the new
disease burden and meet the population’s expectations within
the context of budget constraints. The current paper
provides a critical assessment of the Kyrgyz Republic’s
basic health benefit package. It reveals a number of issues
in the actual benefits delivered to the population as
opposed to the generous promise of the statutory package.
Some important limitations include lack of clarity,
persistent funding gap, the large number of fee exemption
categories given the resource constraints, and at the same
time lack of an effective mechanism to protect the poor.
Most importantly, there is no systematic arrangement in
place to ensure a regular evidence-based process to revise
the benefit package. The paper proposes several measures
that could guide the process of SGBP revision, taking into
account the particular Kyrgyz context and building on
international experiences. It is expected that information
from the paper will be useful not only for Kyrgyz
stakeholders, but also for other countries in making the
benefit package an effective instrument for achieving
universal health coverage.
Citation
“Nguyen, Ha Thi Hong; Strizrep, Tihomir. 2019. Toward a More Pro-Poor and Explicit Health Benefit Package in the Kyrgyz Republic: A Critical Review of the State Guaranteed Benefit Package and Options for Its Revision. Health, Nutrition, and Population Discussion Paper;. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33096 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”