2019 Volume 68 Issue 5 Pages 425-433
Introduction: Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is a system ensuring people to receive medical care at an affordable cost and is promoted by UN and WHO as a goal to be achieved by all member countries. As the first country to have achieved UHC in Asia, Japan provides technical assistance for Asian countries to achieve UHC as part of its international health diplomacy.
The “Social security system strengthening towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in Asia” course was organized by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in collaboration with the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH) and was provided in three years (FY2013-15).
Contents: The participants were young bureaucrats responsible for the development of UHC in their countries. The course intends to provide technical knowledge and skills useful for UHC through a case study of Japan's experiences. The course also emphasizes practical aspects of the UHC operation to be learned from on-site visits.
The course is a two-week course, in which the first half is devoted for didactic lectures to provide basic understanding about Japan's UHC system and the last half is devoted for site visits to the three essential components of health insurance: insurer, provider and claims review/reimbursement organizations (CRRO).
In the end of the course, participants summarize what they learned to make them lessons for realizing UHC in their countries. Those lessons range from health economics to balance the patients' copayment and its inflationary effects on health expenditures to political negotiations to win supports from providers (such as favorable taxation on doctors' income derived from health insurance).
Achievement: In three years, a total of 39 participants from nine countries completed the course. The course was continued in FY2016 after expanding target countries from Asia to include Africa. Monitoring of the activities of the participants and the developmental process of UHC of participating countries will be next challenges to the future.
