Assessing the Implementation of Public Service Contracting in the Universal Health Coverage Policy in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand: The Government Tools Approach

ABSTRACT Health and well-being are significant UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) in improving living conditions and guaranteeing human rights to adequate standard of living. The Universal Health Coverage (UHC) policy is recommended in achieving these SDGs. However, the existing literature on the implementation of public service contracting mechanism in the UHC policy mostly focused on the Anglophone countries or medical-based perspective. Little is known about the structure, management, and outcomes of UHC contracting in developing countries under the government tools perspective, especially in Southeast Asia. This paper thus adopts qualitative document research and applies Salamon’s government tools framework in assessing the implementation of public service contracting in the UHC policy in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand. These countries were selected based on their relative similarities on the political regime, economic status, and the implementation of the UHC policy. The results suggest that while all countries demonstrate policy convergence on the use of multiple policy tools with public service contracting mechanism, which demonstrates the importance of the accountability structure in implementing UHC contract, different contexts in these countries also influence different UHC contracting structure, management, and outcomes. The results also provide supports and variations of the implementation of the POS contract against the previous observations. Key lessons learned for future public administration research and practice in UHC policy and government tools framework are also discussed. Keywords: Universal health coverage, Public service contract, Government tools approach, New public management, Southeast Asia