Supporting role of non-governmental health insurance schemes in the implementation of universal health coverage in developing countries

Abstract

An incremental move towards universal health coverage (UHC) is an important issue in many developing coun-tries. There is often limited fiscal capacity for UHC im-plementation, which results in restricted access to health care and high level out of pocket payments. An important policy question is whether health insurance (HI) provided by non-governmental actors – either on non-profit or for-profit basis – can support UHC implementation to resolve problems? This paper argues that the nature of HI arrangements provided outside the governmental schemes strongly depend on the structure and evolution of the publicly funded system and on the extent to which regulators let non-governmental health care actors support the publicly funded system. Collaboration between public and private stakeholders is important to facilitate the implementation of UHC supported by supplementary and complementary HI schemes.