Kazakhstan seeks new health care approaches

The First Kazakh President’s task given as part of the January 10th 2018 address to Kazakh people, the new model of a guaranteed amount of free medical care was elaborated as well as the package of medical care within the obligatory social health insurance system, which are according to Yelzhan Birtanov, due to be fully operational by September 2020. The work was in line with the UN SDGs.

“The major chronical non-infectious illnesses have grown by 2.5 times, primarily because of better diagnostics and the global spread of lifestyle-related diseases. The average treatment bill in the round-the-clock inpatient facilities has risen by 1.5 times, while over 450 new expensive devices have been brought”, the Kazakh Healthcare Minister said.

Despite the increasing yearly budgetary expenses, the current financing of a guaranteed amount of free medical care does not meet the rising demand of the population for health care, the Minister warns.

“The financing deficit was 363 billion tenge in 2017 alone caused by the sizable currency contribution of the service costs, leading to a rise in incidental expenses peaked at 42% of the total health expenditure in 2017. The figure is twice the cap recommended by the WHO”, he said.  

The three-level system of public medical services was designed, with the first level providing all Kazakh nationals, including resettlers, permanent foreign residents, with a guaranteed amount of free health care at the expense of the State budget. The free package of medical care services includes as follows: primary health care near residence place, ambulance, sanitary aviation and emergency in-patient services, a full range for diseases posing a threat to public health, including medication supply. The second level includes a package of a guaranteed amount of free health care for the insured population meaning additional services such as consultative and diagnostic assistance, planned, stationary and free medication supply for a wider number of diseases, rehabilitation and recovery. The third level implies the medical services not included in packages of a guaranteed amount of free health care and the obligatory social health insurance system.

“The drafts of health care were thoroughly worked out by the experts, agreed with the regional health departments, the interested governmental agencies, considered and approved by the Health Ministry’s public council”, the Kazakh Health Minister announced.

The Minister stressed the increasing role of a general practitioner not only to enhance the public health but also to coordinate health care at different levels of the new model of health care, telling the PM that the Ministry takes the steps to improve the quality and accessibility of primary health care for 2019 and 2020 years.

Kazakh Prime Minister, Askar Mamin, recalled of the common task to enhance the accessibility and quality of medical services, citing to the Ministry of Healthcare that did a lot to form a guaranteed amount of free health care and implement obligatory social health insurance.

“The new 2025 Health Development State Programme is under way. In order to effectively roll out obligatory social health insurance, the first pilot project will be launched on 1 September in Karaganda region. So I task the Healthcare Ministry to control the pilot project’s launch, and the Governor’s Office of Karaganda region to prepare its medical organizations for the project”, the Kazakh PM said.

He told that the experience gained needs to be translated in all the regions and considered when starting nation-wide obligatory social health insurance next year.

“I instruct all Governor’s Offices of all the regions to sort out all the issues relating to the launch of obligatory social health insurance by October next year. Third, the Ministry and the regions need to work more in terms of public awareness on obligatory social health insurance so as each citizen knows what medical services the country provides for free as guarantees, and how the new system of social health insurance will work”, the Kazakh PM said.

Adlet Seilkhanov