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.

There are several defined and semi-defined “packages” of health services floating around Haiti, and the literature is rife with contradictions and uncertainty. Our analysis reveals that Haiti has an EPHS, but the following context is important to understand: The Ministry of Health and Population of the government of Haiti first defined a Paquet Minimum de Services (PMS) for the first level of the health system in the Plan Stratégique du Secteur de la Santé́ pour la Réforme 2003-2008. The next generation of the PMS is referred to as the Paquet Essentiel de Services (PES). It is clear that there has been some confusion and uncertainty related to an EPHS in Haiti. Based on our analysis, we believe the government of Haiti’s 2006 revision of the PMS, plus the list of services for the secondary level defined in 2010, most closely fits the definition of the country’s current EPHS. Once the PES is complete, it will become the current version of Haiti’s EPHS.

Essential Package of Health Services and Health Benefit Plans Mapping Brief

Resource Type: Brief
Authors: Jeena Mathew, Onaopemipo Abiodun
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 is for policymakers and program managers seeking to promote universal health coverage. It presents HFG’s findings and observations about the relationship between the services in an EPHS and the services covered in HBPs.