AMMAN – On Tuesday, the
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
suggested that the Jordanian government can “consider enhancing healthcare
revenues” by modifying insurance premiums and cost-sharing. They also called
for a strategy to be developed for good, affordable, and sustainable healthcare
in the Kingdom.
اضافة اعلان
In a new report titled “
Health Spending Efficiency: Issues
and Reform Directions”, the IMF pointed out “medium-term pressures on
healthcare spending” in Jordan. The IMF indicated that these pressures are
caused by rising healthcare costs and coverage of expenses for elderly citizens
with chronic diseases, in addition to providing subsidized healthcare for 1.3
million Syrian refugees, Al-Mamlaka TV reported.
It confirmed that Jordan has strong health outcomes in
several health indicators, however, the Jordanian healthcare system is under
pressure due to rising healthcare costs. Jordan tends to focus its budget on
hospitals and drugs and less on primary healthcare.
Jordan aims to achieve “universal health coverage” by 2030.
It faces “limited fiscal space” while aspiring to enhance its healthcare
services and coverage in a cost-effective manner, emphasizing that this
requires finding efficiency in healthcare spending to support a sustainable
agenda for universal health coverage.
The IMF has suggested that the government can “consider
enhancing healthcare revenues” by modifying insurance premiums, cost-sharing,
and updating the affordable price imposed on medical services. It explained
that “a package of low-cost health benefits is being developed that should be
implemented and maintained consistent with financial sustainability”.
The report reviewed
public health spending in Jordan and provided
options to enhance spending efficiency that support the government’s efforts in
the health sector and regulate public finances.
The IMF has emphasized that "the authorities should
work to achieve a continuous balance between the financial sustainability of
the healthcare sector to ensure its ability to maintain and improve the
services provided, with the need to target health coverage gaps more tightly
over time.
“In the medium term, expanding coverage should be based on
the potential for implementing a low-cost program and supporting it with a
strategy to enhance primary healthcare and other reforms,” according to the
IMF, which emphasized that “reforms should include improving efficiency and
effectiveness in expanding the scope of primary healthcare, with a focus on
incentivizing hospitals and enabling them to make changes to improve
efficiency.”
It has also emphasized that in the short term, a realistic
and sustainable path for healthcare spending should be developed, implemented,
and managed jointly by the Ministries of Finance and Health to achieve
efficient spending.
The government has allocated approximately JD766.4 million
to the
Ministry of Health in the 2024 budget, an increase of about JD65 million
dinars compared to 2023. Current expenditures amounted to JD671.5 million, an
increase of JD41 million, of which JD20 million was growth in salaries and
wages and filling vacancies. Capital expenditures amounted to JD95 million, an
increase of about JD24 million, of which JD10 million was allocated to the
Princess Basma Hospital project in Irbid.
The IMF has focused on providing support in analyzing
comprehensive healthcare spending, supporting Qatari efforts to develop and
implement a low-cost path to expand healthcare coverage, and identifying areas
that the Ministry of Finance can build and support reform efforts.
Regarding insurance premiums, a committee was formed by
Minister of Health, Firas Al-Hawari, in September 2023 to make the necessary
recommendations.
The committee was formed after a dispute over doctors’
salary scale after the Jordanian Doctors Syndicate Council had announced the
suspension of an insurance case, scheduled for September 2 until the
committee’s work was completed. It includes the Doctors Syndicate and
representatives from the Jordan Insurance Federation, the National Society for
Consumer Protection, the Jordanian Association for Health Insurance, the
General Federation of Jordanian Trade Unions, and the Medical Bill Advocacy
Committee.
The revenue of the medical insurance fund amounted to JD185
million, an increase of JD5 million from the revised estimate in 2023. It is
noted that the estimated value is the same in 2023, and the fund achieved JD180
million. While current expenditures amounted to JD184.7 million, an increase of
about JD5 million was allocated from the fund’s revenues of JD70 million.
Hawari said during a parliamentary meeting that the
ministry’s budget witnessed an increase in capital expenditures, where the
budget is “the highest it has ever seen and contributes to the progress of the
ministry’s plans and programs.” This indicates the expansion of health
insurance and ease of access to treatment in emergency departments in private
hospitals and a decrease in the number of transfers to private sector hospitals
by 45 percent due to the lack of beds or the absence of specialized treatment.
The ministry has also introduced new services, including implementing
more than 7,000 catheterization procedures, more than 530 open-heart surgeries,
and 1,000 procedures for blood vessels, as well as quality operations in
nerves, spine, and eyes.
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