Accessible and affordable health insurance is the next stage of the Ukrainian healthcare system transformation

On October 9, the Healthcare Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce (ACC) in Ukraine held a meeting with deputy Minister of Health of Ukraine Pavlo Kovtoniuk and the key insurance market players, who discussed a roadmap to develop and implement affordable and accessible health insurance in Ukraine.

"The Ministry of Health of Ukraine considers medical insurance to be an integral part of the new healthcare system. However, to start implementing health insurance, we need a new mechanism for paying for medical services provided at all healthcare levels. First, there should be a healthcare service institution, a competitive healthcare service market, and a full-fledged eHealth system for monitoring the delivery of healthcare services. Patient should have the right to freely choose a doctor and a healthcare provider. Without these basic elements, health insurance will be a fake," explained Pavlo Kovtoniuk during the meeting.

In 2020, Ukraine will have a state healthcare guarantees program covering all healthcare levels, including hospital care. In addition, we will start actively implementing affordable and accessible health insurance in Ukraine.

The Ministry of Health of Ukraine aims to ensure that every person in Ukraine benefits from the state guarantees program for the most common primary care, specialized outpatient care, and emergency care services covered by the National Health Service of Ukraine. One of our key objectives is to provide employers, government agencies, local authorities and patients with every opportunity to benefit from the new health insurance system and options. The successful development of health insurance in Ukraine is feasible and achievable, provided the establishment of a competitive market, where patients and employers can freely choose an insurer.

To make health insurance available to every tenth Ukrainian in 2020, the Ministry has already started working in this direction. The meeting with the key insurance market players was one of the first steps towards future progress. The meeting participants outlined prospects for cooperation between the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and insurers, and discussed the legislative changes necessary to initiate the Ukrainian insurance market reboot and to make it part of the reform.