Essential Package of Health Services Country Snapshot

Resource Type: Brief
Authors: Jenna Wright
Published: July 2015

Resource Description:

An Essential Package of Health Services (EPHS) can be defined as the package of services that the government is providing or is aspiring to provide to its citizens in an equitable manner.

This country snapshot is one in a series of 24 snapshots looking at the governance dimensions of Essential Packages of Health Services in the Ending Preventable Child and Maternal Death priority countries. The snapshot explores several important dimensions of the EPHS in the country, such as how government policies contribute to the service coverage, population coverage, and financial coverage of the package.

The series of documents that best fits the definition of the EPHS in India is the Indian Public Health Standards (2012) series, plus Annexure II of the Guidelines for Community Processes (2013), which lists the services provided by community health workers referred to as accredited social health activists (ASHAs). While responsibility for health services resides with state governments, these documents were published by the central government in 2012 and 2013, and provide relatively specific information on the services that will be provided by community health workers and the first three levels of public sector health care facilities throughout India.

Essential Package of Health Services and Health Benefit Plans Mapping Brief

Resource Type: Brief
Authors: Jeena Mathew
Published: June 2017

Resource Description:

Many governments are scaling up health benefit plans, such as social health insurance, to increase population health coverage. This brief presents findings from a mapping between the services covered under the country’s prominent health benefit plan(s) to the country’s Essential Package of Health Services. The mapping analyzes the extent to which the plan(s) cover essential services.

This brief presents HFG’s findings and observations for policymakers and program managers seeking to promote alignment of services in the EPHS with services covered in the HBP and move toward universal health coverage.