Freetown – Sierra Leone has taken a severe step toward advancing Universal Health Protection (UHC) with the convening of a high-level policy dialogue on the draft Sierra Leone Company for Universal Health Protection (SLAUHC) Invoice. Organized on 6 Could additionally 2025 by the Ministry of Health with enhance from the World Health Organization (WHO), the one-day engagement introduced together over 60 senior leaders in Freetown, together with ministers, directors, and technical heads from all the diagram in which thru the health sector.
The proposed SLAUHC Invoice outlines the institution of a devoted company that can mix and organize two predominant national health financing mechanisms, the Free Healthcare Initiative (FHCI) and the Sierra Leone Social Health Insurance Scheme (SLeSHI). The unified governance construction targets to deal with recent fragmentation, pork up the effectivity of health financing, and crawl up the country’s growth toward attaining UHC.
“This Invoice is a transformative step in Sierra Leone’s skedaddle toward sustainable health financing,” said Dr. Ibrahim F. Kamara, speaking on behalf of the WHO Country Consultant. “This can enhance institutional skill, pork up accountability, and execute optimistic equitable salvage entry to to health companies, in particular for the most inclined populations.”
The engagement served three key targets: a comprehensive review of the draft legislation, consensus-building among stakeholders, and alignment with the Ministry of Health’s UHC Roadmap and SLeSHI implementation framework. The is a consolidated and urged policy position prior to the invoice’s submission to the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC).
Chief Scientific Officer Dr Sartie Kenneh emphasized the significance of a comprehensive and inclusive approach to UHC: “the name and scope of the invoice must contemplate the broader dimensions required to develop UHC. Whereas health financing is a severe pillar, it is only one phase of the equation. No healthcare carrier is in actual fact free, while it is going to additionally very nicely be free at the purpose of supply, someone finally bears the price. Therefore, we must collectively compose a sustainable health financing mannequin that ensures long-duration of time viability. Additionally it is prudent to allow the Free Healthcare Initiative and the Social Health Insurance Scheme to operate in tandem, to optimize protection and execute optimistic the elephantine spectrum of healthcare charges is addressed.”
The proposed SLAUHC Company responds to longstanding structural challenges within the health financing panorama. At show cowl, out-of-pocket funds account for 56% of total health expenditure, nicely above the sub-Saharan Africa reasonable of 30%. Decrease than 1% of Sierra Leone’s population is roofed by any social health protection diagram, exposing many to catastrophic health spending and pushing households additional into poverty. Moreover, with 75% of health financing reliant on donor contributions, making certain coherence with national priorities remains a pressing arena.
The draft invoice is grounded within the Ministry’s Health Financing Approach 2021–2025, which calls for the creation of a Universal Health Protection Fund, integration with SLeSHI, and the approach of operational and regulatory programs to enhance long-duration of time health sector sustainability.
WHO has reaffirmed its elephantine technical enhance to the Ministry within the finalization and operationalization of the SLAUHC Invoice. This entails enhance for institutional compose, skill strengthening, price-containment mechanisms, and the institution of care quality and precedence-surroundings frameworks.
Once enacted, the SLAUHC Company will help as a central institution for resource mobilization, regulation of economic flows, and oversight of predominant health again programs. It’s anticipated to play a pivotal role in bettering effectivity, transparency, and fairness in health carrier supply.
This high-level dialogue marks a valuable milestone in Sierra Leone’s health sector reform agenda. It paves the model for the institution of a National Health Insurance Scheme and reinforces the country’s dedication to attaining health for all, leaving no one within the assist of.
