Analysis Of The Myanmar Health System

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The Myanmar health system faces numerous challenges There have been recent efforts to reverse decades of institutional neglect in the health sector. Thanks to efforts to tackle the spread of the three main communicable diseases – malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS –, for example, the country was able to largely meet the targets associated with Millennium Development Goal 6. Several policies were introduced in 2013 and 2014 to improve service delivery, increase service utilisation and reduce households’ out-­‐of-­‐pocket spending for health1*. The introduction of these policies was accompanied by a rise in public spending on health from 0.2 per cent of GDP in 2009 (the lowest in the world) to slightly over 1 per cent in 2014. Despite these …show more content…

These relate to the availability and distribution of inputs (e.g. human resources, physical infrastructure, supply chain, financial resources) and to 1 The reader may not be familiar with some of the terms used in this document. A glossary of terms was prepared to facilitate the reading. It can be found in an accompanying document. For each term, the glossary provides a definition in English, as well as a translation and/or definition in Myanmar language. Terms included in the glossary are indicated with an asterisk (*) the first time they appear in the text. weaknesses in key functions (e.g. supervision, referral, health management information system*, public financial management*). They also result from a lack of oversight, leadership and accountability. Out-­‐of-­‐pocket payments for health at the point of care result in financial hardship and prevent many poor* and near-­‐poor* households from accessing the care they need. Despite recent increases in government spending on health, close to 70 per cent of total health financing still comes in the form of out-­‐of-­‐pocket payments. This percentage figures among the highest in the …show more content…

First, it presents the big picture together with a framework around which the subsequent six sections of the document are organised. Then follows a broad outline of a monitoring framework to track progress in the implementation of the reforms. The final section discusses the importance of internal and external communication in keeping the different stakeholders informed and engaged. Annex 1 describes the process that was adopted for the development of the Programme of Health Reforms. MYANMAR’S PATH TO UHC – THE BIG PICTURE Background • Before summarising where we are now, where we want to go and where we want to start, it may be useful to provide some background information on UHC. • Many paths can lead to UHC. Learning from global experience, certain pitfalls can be avoided as Myanmar chooses which path to take. • Moving towards UHC involves an expansion of the so-­‐called ‘UHC cube’ (see Figure 2) along each of the three dimensions: population, services and direct costs. Figure 2 – The UHC

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