The present report “Price, availability and affordability of medicines in Georgia” attempted to obtain reliable data on these aspects and documents tendencies of change over the course of 6 month in 2010. The survey looked at availability and price of Innovative Brands and their equivalent low price generics, analyzed collected data by type of medicine, regional differences as well as by type of pharmacy. The survey also looks at medicine mark-ups and compares with mark-ups in European countries, measures affordability of standard treatments as percent of average subsistence monthly allowance and provides comparison of the standard treatments by innovative brands and equivalent low price generics. Though the study has not covered all therapeutic categories, these do not detract from the importance of the above results as basis for action and as baseline for future studies. Authors: Tamar Gotsadze, Natia Rukhadze, Tinatin Turdzeladze; 2010. The full version of the report in available in Georgian.
Category: Health Financing
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Customer Satisfaction Research Report on Corporate Health Insurance
Customer Satisfaction Research on Corporate Health Insurance aims to explore satisfaction of corporate clients of insurance companies and develops recommendations for further polishing and improvement of corporate insurance services. The research revealed that there is a high share/percent of not insured employees in corporate insurance schemes. Financial accessibility is one of the most noteworthy barriers for joining the insurance scheme. Not all citizens having the will to use insurance have a guaranteed opportunity to get corporate insurance.
The study was supported by International Health Budget Monitoring Initiative of the Open Society Institute. The research prepared by CIF experts Marine Egutia, Natia Rukhadze, Tamar Gotsadze looks at trends of insurance market, shares of insurance types and customer satisfaction. Georgian insurance market is young, though the rapid growth is apparent. Data prompted by the National Bank of Georgia proved 33 percent growth in 2009 compared with the year 2008. The Health insurance is the most popular and occupies 68.6 percent of market structure.
The share of the insurance companies has increased since 2007 following the health financing reform launched by the Government of Georgia. The private insurance companies succeeded to attract substantial amount of state finances. Insurance of state program beneficiaries by insurance companies is being implemented in the framework of state assignments. According to 2008 year data, 18 percent of Georgian population is insured by the state. Along with this, there is a slow pace of corporate insurance development which is used by employees of public, private and non-governmental sectors. Retail insurance comprises 1 percent of market. 76 percent of the population is exposed to health risks. You can read the full version of the Report, Policy Brief, or Presentation.
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Become Part of a New Insurance Culture!- Presentation
The presentation describes dynamic of health insurance development in Georgia, parameters of insurance and insurance systems and different policy choices/options the country faces in Health Insurance Field. The presentation also describes state financed and co-financed health insurance products. Author of the presentation: Devi Khechinashvili. Full version is available in English and in Georgian.
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Opportunities for Change-Presentation
The presentation describes the importance of the pharmaceutical sector, factors conditioned development of the draft Bill on Changes and Amendments to the Georgian Law on Drugs and Pharmaceutical Activities, which has been passed by the Parliament of Georgia 10th of August, 2009 and became effective from October 15, 2009. The presentation also describes key concepts, recommendations rendered to the Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Affairs in 2007, including the information on which recommendations accepted and which of them ignored by the Ministry; The presentation also provides recommendations for further improvement of the legislation. Author of the presentation: Vakhtang Megrelishvili. Full version is available in English and in Georgian.
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National Health Accounts:Reproductive Health Sub-Analysis for Georgia 2001-2003
National Health Accounts (NHA) is an internationally recognized methodology for monitoring financial resource flows into the health sector from the various sources of funds to financial agents, and from financial agents to providers and functions. The NHA sub-analysis for reproductive health is presented to evaluate resources for reproductive health services within the overall NHA framework. The NHA reproductive health sub-analysis for Georgia was carried out by a team of experts from Curatio International Foundation, Abt. Associates Inc. and the National Institute of Health of Georgia (NIH), with the financial assistance of USAID Caucasus for the CoReform project. The purpose of this paper is to present the estimates of reproductive health spending during 2001-2003 and derive policy relevant results, to inform the reproductive health policy development process that is currently taking place in the country.Published: 2005. Authors: Ketevan Chkhatarashvili, George Gotsadze, Alexandr Turdziladze. View the document.
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Policy Implications of the first Systematic Tracking of Financial Flows for HIV/AIDS in Ukraine, 2006
Policy Implications of the first Systematic Tracking of Financial Flows for HIV/AIDS in Ukraine is presentation delivered by the nine health care experts in Toronto in August 2006.The presentation looks at background information of HIV/AIDS like prevalance, HIV/Aids statistics, HIV/AIDS spending, finances sources, expenditures by functions, comparison with other countries in the scope of expenditures by functions etc. Authors of the presentation: Yuriy Chechulin, George Gotsadze,Catherine Chanfreau, Liudmila Husak,Vinay Saldanha, Anastasiya Nitsoy, Viktor Galayda,Manjiri Bhawalkar, Tania Dmytraczenko. View the full version of the presentation.
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Premium Estimates for the 2008 State Health Care Benefit Program for the Poor
As a result of technical assistance provided by the CoReform project the Government of Georgia in 2007 introduced targeted (to poor) health care benefit program in two pilot regions (city of Tbilisi and Imereti region) of Georgia covering approximately 180,000 individuals below poverty line. This program is aimed at paying for health care insurance coverage that population obtains from private insurance companies on the market. During fall 2007, the GoG made decision and announced to public that it will gradually expand program coverage to approximately 1.2 million individuals over the course of several years. In order to estimate reasonable monthly premium costs for people living below the poverty line, children and the elderly, and allocate budgetary resources accordingly, the MoLHSA requested USAID for assistance, through CoReform, to estimate Monthly Premium for the State Insurance Program to inform the State budget allocations for 2008. It is estimated that during 2008 up to 800 000 poor individual will receive such benefits. The project has developed a plan for immediate assistance with the calculations required for the 2008 budget spending.Monthly Premium estimations done by CoReform/CIF hired actuaries in December 2007 have already informed 2008 State Budget allocations approved on December 28, 2007 and reflected in the Government of Georgia (GoG) Decree #92, dated April 08, 2008, namely: a) average premium 11 Gel per month per person that makes 132 Gel per person per annum informed Article 6 (3) of the Decree in question and b) different premium coefficients estimated for different age groups and these coefficients are reflected in the Article 6 (4) of the said Decree.
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Premium Estimates for the 2009 State Health Care Benefit Program for the Poor
It is estimated that during 2009 up to 900 000 poor individual will be covered by the Program. Monthly Premium estimations done by CoReform/CIF hired actuaries in September 2008 have already submitted to the MoLHSA to inform 2009 State Budget allocations, namely: a) average premium 12.64 Gel per month per person that makes 151.68 Gel per person per annum; b) different premium coefficients estimated for the following scenarios: i) age and sex; ii) different age groups (age 0-49; age 50-74; age 75 and above); iii) age, sex and family size; iv) age, sex and region; The premium estimations informed GoG Decree #32 dated February 19, 2009, where average premium exceeds 12.64 GEL and equals 15 Gel per month, largely because of Government’s policy decision to further expand insurance package for the Poor.
Premium Estimates for the 2009 State Health Care Benefit Program for the Poor (ENG)
Premium Estimates for the 2009 State Health Care Benefit Program for the Poor (GEO) -
Calculation of Funds Spent by the State and Donors on TB Treatment and Prevention
The purpose of this document is to estimate the costs incurred by the government and donors on tuberculosis prevention and treatment in Georgia in 2001-2005. The document does not address private spending of the population on tuberculosis, since there is no reliable information (household surveys) presently available on private household expenditure on the treatment of the disease. Expenditures of the Georgian government and donors on tuberculosis treatment and its prevention in Georgia for the period 2001-2005 were calculated by Curatio International Foundation for project, “Cooperation for the Transformation of Georgian Health Care System” (CoReform) funded by the USAID/Caucasus Mission. View the full version.
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The research article on Household Catastrophic Health Expenditure-evidence from Georgia and its policy implications published in BMC Health Services Research
On April 28,2009 the research article on Household Catastrophic Health Expenditure-evidence from Georgia and its policy implications was published on the online scientific journal BMC Health Services Research. The research undertaken by the highly qualified experts of Curatio International Foundation was funded by the organization itself. The study was based on the data of the Health Care Utilization and Expenditure survey conducted during May-June 2007 prior to preparing for new phase of implementation for the health care financing reforms. It aimed at quantifying extent of catastrophic household health expenditures, exploring its influencing factors and estimating fairness in Financial Contribution (FFC) index in Georgia to establish the baseline for expected reforms and contribute to the design and the fine-tuning of the major reforms in health care financing initiated by the government mid-2007. The research results show that in Georgia between 2000 and 2007 access to care for poor has improved slightly and the share of households facing catastrophic health expenditures have seemingly increased from 2.8% in 1999 to 11.7% in 2007. Follow the link to read the article.