Project News

CHONBURI, 13-15 May 2018- Ministry of Public Health of Thailand, National Health Security Office (NHSO), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and "The Partnership Project for Global Health and Universal Health Coverage (GLO+UHC)" co-organized Health Care Finance Workshop at the Tide Resort, Bangsaen District to share Japan's and Thailand's experiences on how to manage social health insurance and health systems through fee schedule system and the roles of central and local governments in the financial management of health insurance.

The workshop involved a combination of keynote addresses, expert panels on nine important health financing topics, and group works to reflect on lessons learned on these issues which could be applied to health system financing of Thailand .These nine topics were overview of Japan's health systems and UHC, basic knowledge on health economics, medical fee system, role of Central Social Insurance Medical Council, way forward of Japan's social security system, political economy of health care reform, long-term care insurance, hot issues on health finance (pay-for-performance), and governance and administrative issues, in particular revenue collection process.

The introductory address was given by Mr. Shigeki Miyake, Senior Representative of JICA Thailand Office, who elaborated on JICA's major role in fostering self-reliance and strengthening capacity of developing countries to address global challenges namely achieving universal health coverage (UHC). He acknowledged that sustainable health financing system is an important aspect to UHC and firmly believed that this workshop would help improve efficiency, equity, and sustainability of Thailand's health system financing. This was followed by another opening remarks by Dr. Jadej Thammatacharee, Deputy Secretary-General of NHSO, who provided a rationale for organizing the workshop as a follow up to the study visit to Japan by Thai Public Health Minister and his high-level delegation in February 2017.

An introduction to the Partnership Project for Global Health and Universal Health Coverage was provided by Dr. Yohsuke Takasaki, Chief Advisor/Expert on Health Policy, Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW). He stressed that the project symbolized a new level of partnership in which the two countries cooperate to move the world towards UHC and indicated that health financing is one important aspect of collaboration toward this goal.

The workshop brought together 20 academics and experts from various institutions such as Institute for Health Economics and Policy, JICA, MHLW, University of Tokyo, Waseda University, and UCLA, sharing views and experiences on developing a sustainable health system financing.

This three-day event was well received by more than 100 participants that consisted of ministry officials, health experts and professors, government agencies, and private sectors from Japan and Thailand.