Rwanda to host regional conference on social health protection in East Africa

Rwanda next week will host the Conference on Social Health Protection in the East African Community, which "will consider various approaches to providing universal health coverage in Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Burundi," VOA News reports. The news service highlights a new study on universal coverage, published in the WHO Bulletin, "that reviewed health systems in 12 African and Asian countries" and, based on "impact indicators" that include "the way financial resources are collected to fund insurance plans, the amount of coverage provided to recipients, whether that coverage is provided to all segments of society and whether there's been an improvement in the quality of life," found "social and community health insurance plans 'hold untapped potential' for achieving universal coverage." According to VOA, study author Ernst Spaan of the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center in the Netherlands said "that the study's findings 'back the World Health Organization's view that pre-paid financing mechanisms, such as health insurance, are a key route to universal coverage'" (DeCapua, 9/4).