No images? Click here ■ Thursday March 23, 2023 ■1 pm CET - 5.30 pm ISTSeveral LMICs have introduced publicly funded health insurance programs as central to their strategy to move closer to UHC. However, despite sometimes impressive increases in coverage, people continue to face major barriers to accessing -quality care due to a lack of information about benefits or challenges of navigating access to care. Likewise, grievance redressal arrangements may function poorly and participation of citizens in the design and oversight of insurance programmes is inadequate resulting in these programmes being often not designed in accordance with people’s needs. In response to this, governments as well as civil society organizations (CSOs) have established a range of initiatives to empower citizens to realize their health insurance entitlements. These include initiatives around information provision, health provider navigation, help hotlines and grievance redressal mechanisms, and involving citizens in insurance oversight. To better understand how these initiatives might be strengthened, the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research in collaboration with the WHO Health Financing Unit supported a programme of research to understand how a range of such initiatives have (or not) contributed to enabling citizens to exercise their health insurance entitlements. This webinar will a) provide an overview of the research programme and illustrate key lessons gleaned across the countries: b) go in-depth into understanding how initiatives in Colombia, India and Indonesia have contributed to citizen empowerment and health insurance responsiveness and what remains to be done; and c) engage policymakers, health financing experts and CSO representatives to reflect on key emergent themes. Introduction Dr Kumanan Rasanathan is the Executive Director of the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research. He is a public health physician with extensive experience working at different levels of the World Health Organization and within the wider UN system. During his almost 25 years working in health systems, career highlights have included serving as Incident Manager for WHO for the COVID-19 response in Cambodia, helping to drive the development of the Sustainable Development Goal health agenda while at UNICEF and contributing to the work of the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health. Presention & wrap up Dr Zubin Shroff is a health systems specialist at the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research with nearly fifteen years of experience in the areas of health governance and financing, human resources for health and access to medicines. His work at the Alliance encompasses the conceptualization of cross-national research programs in these areas, engaging with policymakers to use this evidence to support programme implementation. He holds Doctoral and Masters degrees in Global Health from the Harvard School of Public Health and a medical degree from the University of Delhi. Other presenters Dinna Prapto Raharja leads Synergy Policies, a think tank and consulting firm on public policy. She is an Associate Professor and Certified Lecturer in International Relations, an expert and trainer with 23 years of experience researching and advocating on social protection, foreign policy, and democracy, including labor issues. She is actively participating in various one-and-a-half-track diplomacy with the United States, Australia, Japan, and first-track diplomacy with ASEAN Member States. Mery Bolívar is a medical doctor with research and teaching experience. Her areas of expertise include health and right to health policies, health systems, universal health coverage, and health financing, with specific application to health prioritization, health benefits plan design. Mery has served as National Superintendent of Health of Colombia and other positions that have allowed her to have expertise in large scale health systems, in different territorial levels and perspectives of actors. Sapna Desai is based at the Population Council, New Delhi, where her work focuses on women’s health and well-being, particularly community-based interventions, health systems, and sexual and reproductive health. She previously spent several years working with the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), and is a Commissioner on the Lancet Citizen’s Commission on Reimagining India’s Health System. Sapna holds a PhD in Epidemiology and Population Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and MS in Population and International Health from Harvard University. Moderator Manuela De Allegri is Leader of the Research Unit in Health Economics and Health Financing at the Institute of Global Health of the University of Heidelberg. Her areas of expertise include health financing, impact and process evaluation and economic evaluation, with specific application to social health protection and provider payment mechanisms in low and middle income countries. Manuela has served as Commissioner on the Lancet Commission Financing Primary Health Care and as advisor to both the Evidence and Knowledge Group of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health and to the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research. Discussants Inke Mathauer is a senior health financing specialist at the Department of Health Systems Governance and Financing at the WHO in Geneva, where she leads the global work on strategic purchasing for universal health coverage, with an interest on mixed provider payment systems, governance arrangements for purchasing, and digital technologies for health financing. She has published on a wide range of health system and health financing topics. Inke has over 23 years of experience and holds a MSc and PhD from the London School of Economics. Ruchi Agarwal is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of National Insurance VimoSEWA Cooperative Ltd. where she is the head of the co-operative and on the board. Ruchi is an experienced management and development sector professional from IRMA. She has held multiple senior management positions in international bilateral entities as Business Advisor, a global policy centre at IIMA, a philanthropic foundation, among others. Walaiporn Patcharanarumol is the Director of Global Health Division of the Ministry of Public Health Thailand. She is a senior Researcher on Health Financing and UHC of International Health Policy Program (IHPP), Ministry of Public Health, Thailand. Pharmacist by training, she has a master degree in Social Protection Financing at Maastricht University, Netherlands and a PhD in Public Health and Policy from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. |