Health Financing Options for Sri Lanka: What, and Why?

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to renew and stimulate the national discourse on how to further Sri Lanka's aspirational goal of achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC [1]) in line with the global sustainable development goals (SDG) to which Sri Lanka is a signatory. After a brief status update about UHC in Sri Lanka, the paper focuses on the financing function, justified on the basis of its central role in addressing the problems confronting the health system, in terms of its inherent inefficiencies as well as the specific context of the economic crisis which the country is currently facing. The paper argues for a well-managed prepaid, pooled health financing mechanism (such as the current tax-based system or social health insurance schemes), incorporating strategic purchasing approaches, leveraging the private sector (both for-profit and non-profit), in order to increase efficiency, equity and accountability by separating the financing and purchasing functions from service delivery.