Seeking Universal Health Coverage of Social Health Insurance in Three Asian Countries: China, Thailand, and Viet Nam

Abstract

What do countries do to achieve universal health coverage? What problems do they encounter? What can the Philippines learn from them? This essay seeks to provide some answers to these questions by reviewing lessons from select examples. While social health insurance (SHI) schemes vary according to country circumstances, they remain the chief means to achieving widest inclusion of people who are in dire need of health care. SHI schemes in various countries initiated by governments—and sometimes by private entities—are meant as an alternative to tax payments and out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditures in times of medical needs. They are expected to reduce OOP by pooling members’ contributions into a fund where payments for health-care services will be drawn. Such pooled money, which constitutes the bulk of SHI funds, is in the hands of the government.