Support to Development of social safety nets in health in Lao PDR through scaling up voluntary community based health insurance in Lao PDR

May 25, 2005

On May 25, 2005 (Wednesday), the Government of Japan and the United Nations (UN) decided to extend assistance of a total of 1,289,750 US dollars (approximately 142 million yen) through the Trust Fund for Human Security for the project "Development of social safety nets in health in Lao PDR through scaling up voluntary community based health insurance" to be implemented in Lao PDR by the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO).
The objective of this project is to prevent and alleviate poverty in Lao PDR through extending financial protection to poor families and improving access to fair quality health care. The main activities are as follows:
(1) Establishing a financial pool designed to ease the burden caused by heavy household expenditure on health;
(2) Introducing a pre-payment system for health services which enables people to receive earlier treatment at public health facilities;
(3) Collecting payments through capitation which provide public health facilities a steady flow of income and eliminate perverse incentives of medical institutions to overuse medicines and diagnostic tests.
The project is expected to improve health system as well as alleviate poverty in Lao PDR.

(Note)

The Trust Fund for Human Security was established in the United Nations Secretariat in March 1999 by the initiative of the Government of Japan, with total contributions of approximately 29 billion yen (approximately US$ 256 million) up to the present. The Trust Fund has assisted many UN agencies' projects and programmes that address various threats to human life, livelihood and dignity, from the perspective of human security.

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