Resource Type: Brief
Authors: Health Finance and Governance Project
Published: 9/1/2016

Resource Description:

What follows is a draft proposal submitted by Health Finance & Governance (HFG) to local partners to present policy options for centralized reimbursement and co-payment. In this way, HFG provides much needed technical support to the Ministry of Health and other government agencies in Vietnam. Furthermore, this proposal illustrates the means by which HFG, through the Sustainable Finance Initiative (SFI), is facilitating domestic revenue generation and strengthening public financial management in support of HIV/AIDS treatment and care.

We address several issues that are likely to be relevant to other PEPFAR priority countries. In particular, it is important to bear in mind that it is one thing to advocate successfully for increased DRM for HIV/AIDS programs or services but quite another to address issues in the health system that may limit the program’s ability to spend those resources effectively. For example, as noted in the proposal presented here, existing systems may require reorganization (e.g., the health insurance scheme nonpayment for currently free medications), or required systems such as a Central Procurement Unit (CPU) may not exist. Systems currently planning Social Health Insurance (SHI) of some sort (e.g., Nigeria, another SFI country) need to keep these complexities in mind as they design schemes that include malaria, HIV/AIDS, family planning, and immunizations – any services for which donors may currently pay the bulk of commodity costs.