12 May 2015, Amman- The High Health Council in collaboration with the World Health Organization and the World Bank organized a High Level National Consultation Workshop: “Jordan National Health Strategy (2015-2019) and the move towards Universal Health Coverage in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan”, in Amman on 12 May 2015. Turkey and Lebanon have been undertaking important health sector reform to move towards Universal Health Coverage and shared lessons learned.

High Level panel discussion was participated by H.R.H. Princess Dina Mired, who highlighted the role that non-governmental, nonprofit specialized organization plays on the road towards achieving Universal Health Coverage, the challenges that are facing the KHCC/KHCF at the present in providing care to uninsured and insured patients from all over Jordan. H.R.H. emphasized on the role of the patient in planning, implementing & evaluating the progress towards health sector reform & UHC.  

H.E. Dr Ali Hyasat/ Chair of the High Health Council, emphasized on the role of the HHC in formulating the general health policy, he also stressed on the importance of the National Healthcare Strategy (2015-2019) as it was based on His Majesty’s Economic blueprint 2025 and derived from the National Agenda and the Government Program. H.E stated that the NHS adopted  a participatory approach that included all partners and stakeholders. He also called on maintaining our gains in the health system and build on our existing achievements. H.E proposed a roadmap to reform the healthcare financing system in order to reach the Universal Health Coverage.

the instrumental role of the National Strategy, especially in the time that  in creating consensus to defining the primary goals of the health systems in Jordan and aligning them with the basic benefits packages for Universal Health Coverage that should be defined with each service providers to match those goals and to ensure quality and equity of health system. H.E. also proposed a framework to accelerate the movement towards UHC including the need to unify the health insurance funds through establishing a national health insurance entity, the mandatory health insurance, the need to computerize the health system, and the need to adopt cost containment strategies especially in the field of diagnostic & curative procedures.   

H.E. Prof Recep Akdağ former Minister of Health of Turkey was the champion in reforming the Health System in Turkey. “Since 2003 Turkey has been able to design and implement wide-ranging health system reforms to achieve universal health coverage that substantially reduced inequalities in health financing, health service access, and outcomes. Now I have the obligation to share with other countries what we have done, he said”. “Achieving Universal Health Coverage is not a dream; human beings come first, health is an important fundamental human right, it is possible to achieve major improvements in health system performance in a relatively short period of time under the right conditions, he concluded”.

H.E Dr Hani Brosk, Secretary General High Health Council, in his welcoming remarks, stated that the strategy is part of the government’s efforts to reform and restructure the health sector, as it seeks to support the health system through policies and services more efficiently and manage resources. The strategy includes a description and analysis of the health sector in Jordan and identifies priorities and objectives to ensure the advancement of the sector and enhances its ability to provide the entire population in Jordan efficient health services and maintain the country’s leading position in this area, Dr Brosk added.

H.E. also focused on the need for consolidated efforts & partnership from all stakeholders to monitor & evaluate the implementation of the National Health Strategy as a road map towards Universal health Coverage in Jordan. 

Dr Maria Cristina Profili WHO Representative to Jordan stated that EMRO as a Region has adopted a WHO resolution in 2012 Regional Committee of moving towards universal health coverage as it is considered as one of the major cross-cutting themes for its work with its Member States to promote equitable and efficient health care systems and requesting countries to develop their roadmap. Furthermore, WHO is strongly supporting the governments to introduce and implement the Health in All Policies (HiAP) initiative where the national health agenda is included in all other sector policies. “Your presence here is absolutely remarkable and conveys an extremely strong message: “Health is everybody’s business” and only a whole-of-government approach will ensure inclusiveness and better governance for health.” Dr Profili added.

In the second part of the event, Dr Tamer Samah Rabie, Senior Health Specialist from the World Bank shared evidence on health financing in Jordan based on recent qualitative and quantitative assessments conducted in Jordan. Dr Awad Mataria, Regional Adviser, Health Economics and Financing from the World Health Organization discussed how to integrate the findings of the Jordan health financing assessments could be integrated in the National Health Sector Strategy (2015-2019) to help formulate a vision, strategy and roadmap to move towards Universal Health Coverage in Jordan.

The Jordanian national health care system is facing substantial strains inflicted by the absence of universal health coverage,
fragmentation of service provision and funding mechanisms, the relatively high health care expenditure and the high rate of migrants' influx, which all pose real challenge to the health of both the residents and the refugees.

The high level national workshop was part of a series of consultations in which the National Health Sector Strategy is being discussed in the presence of multiple partners and stakeholders. The idea behind this workshop was to build consensus and initiate partnership to put in practice such comprehensive strategy.