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Private sector essential to achieve UHC
Private sector essential to achieve UHC
28 Jan 2020—Private health providers play a big role in achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC). But the private sector needs good governance to assure transparency and its delivery of health equity, said health experts at Prince Mahidol Award Conference on Monday.
Spoke during a sideline meeting titled “the role of private sector in accelerating progress toward UHC”, David Clarke, a team leader of UHC and Health System Law at the World Health Organization (WHO), said that it was important to engage private sector in healthcare system especially when the demand for UHC is increasing and requiring resources and better quality services.
According to WHO’s study in 65 countries, private provision represents 40% of all care---which is considered very significant.
“If we don’t engage private sector, we will miss an opportunity to improve healthcare quality and access to health equity,” he said. “But we need a new way of doing governance to engage private sector in health system.”
The governance requires collective actions from both private and public health providers in realizing UHC and create alliances or partnerships in healthcare delivery.
However, this has remained challenging as the private sector itself is very fragmented and difficult to govern in many countries.
Japan has engaged private sector in providing services to its National Health Insurance with a strong regulatory bodies and laws.
For example, Japanese law prohibits medical cooperation to use their profit on extending business beyond health sector. Dividend distribution to the corporation's funders is prohibited to assure that healthcare services are not turned into commodities, said Shinichiro Noda, Japan's Bureau of International Health Cooperation.
The Japanese government also sets up a committee to inspect health facilities and prices to prevent patients from getting low-quality care and being overcharged.
On the other hands, Philippines’ private sector regulation is not as strong as Japan. But PhiHealth, the country’s national health insurance system, must purchase health services from both public and private providers as the latter accounts for 65% of all hospitals in the country.
There is the risk of a higher cost of regulatory for the government and treatments for patients, said Dr Mary Jane Paez from the Department of Health of Philippines.
Waraporn Suwanwela, Director of Bureau of Policy and Strategy Development at National Health Security Office (NHSO), Thai government's independent organization overseeing UHC, said that NHSO had engaged private sector in UHC operation by putting private hospital representatives in its governance board.
Only 5% of health providers under UHC system were private. Low participation of private sector has many reasons. One of those is expensive medical fee that unaffordable for Thai government, indicating that private sector in Thailand is not properly regulated when comes to an issue of pricing.
South Africa displays a contrasting picture. Private sector plays a big role in its healthcare services that remains a large gap between the rich and poor.
Mark Blecher, Chief Director of Health and Social Development of South Africa’s National Treasur, said that his government had little control on private sector.
Private health providers employed the majority of skilled medical staff, an equivalence of 69% of healthcare staff in the country. But they only serve out of pocket payment and 17% of insured persons especially the rich. About 42 % of insured persons use private insurance, which is not affordable by the majority.
“Pricing is important for access, and it’s not easy for us to solve,” said Blecher, adding that South Africa needs to find a strategy to deal with high private sector pricing and reform reimbursement system to allow the government to fund UHC in the future. /end
///////////29 January 2020
28 Jan 2020—Private health providers play a big role in achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC). But the private sector needs good governance to assure transparency and its delivery of health equity, said health experts at Prince Mahidol Award Conference on Monday.
Spoke during a sideline meeting titled “the role of private sector in accelerating progress toward UHC”, David Clarke, a team leader of UHC and Health System Law at the World Health Organization (WHO), said that it was important to engage private sector in healthcare system especially when the demand for UHC is increasing and requiring resources and better quality services.
According to WHO’s study in 65 countries, private provision represents 40% of all care---which is considered very significant.
“If we don’t engage private sector, we will miss an opportunity to improve healthcare quality and access to health equity,” he said. “But we need a new way of doing governance to engage private sector in health system.”
The governance requires collective actions from both private and public health providers in realizing UHC and create alliances or partnerships in healthcare delivery.
However, this has remained challenging as the private sector itself is very fragmented and difficult to govern in many countries.
Japan has engaged private sector in providing services to its National Health Insurance with a strong regulatory bodies and laws.
For example, Japanese law prohibits medical cooperation to use their profit on extending business beyond health sector. Dividend distribution to the corporation's funders is prohibited to assure that healthcare services are not turned into commodities, said Shinichiro Noda, Japan's Bureau of International Health Cooperation.
The Japanese government also sets up a committee to inspect health facilities and prices to prevent patients from getting low-quality care and being overcharged.
On the other hands, Philippines’ private sector regulation is not as strong as Japan. But PhiHealth, the country’s national health insurance system, must purchase health services from both public and private providers as the latter accounts for 65% of all hospitals in the country.
There is the risk of a higher cost of regulatory for the government and treatments for patients, said Dr Mary Jane Paez from the Department of Health of Philippines.
Waraporn Suwanwela, Director of Bureau of Policy and Strategy Development at National Health Security Office (NHSO), Thai government's independent organization overseeing UHC, said that NHSO had engaged private sector in UHC operation by putting private hospital representatives in its governance board.
Only 5% of health providers under UHC system were private. Low participation of private sector has many reasons. One of those is expensive medical fee that unaffordable for Thai government, indicating that private sector in Thailand is not properly regulated when comes to an issue of pricing.
South Africa displays a contrasting picture. Private sector plays a big role in its healthcare services that remains a large gap between the rich and poor.
Mark Blecher, Chief Director of Health and Social Development of South Africa’s National Treasur, said that his government had little control on private sector.
Private health providers employed the majority of skilled medical staff, an equivalence of 69% of healthcare staff in the country. But they only serve out of pocket payment and 17% of insured persons especially the rich. About 42 % of insured persons use private insurance, which is not affordable by the majority.
“Pricing is important for access, and it’s not easy for us to solve,” said Blecher, adding that South Africa needs to find a strategy to deal with high private sector pricing and reform reimbursement system to allow the government to fund UHC in the future. /end
///////////29 January 2020
