The Aftermath of Health Sector Reform in the Republic of Georgia: Effects on People's Health

Abstract

After the collapse of the Former Soviet Union a health reform process was undertaken in Georgia beginning in 1994. This process was intended to encompass all aspects of the health-care sector and to transform the Soviet-style health system into one that was directed towards quality of care, improved access, efficiency, and a strengthened focus on Primary Health Care (PHC). Health sector reform fundamentally changed the ways health care is financed in Georgia. There has been a transition to program-based financing, and payroll-tax-based social insurance schemes have been introduced. Despite these measures, the performance of the health system is still disappointing. All health programs are severely under-funded, and when the majority of the population is unemployed or self-employed, collection of taxes seems impossible. Overall, Georgian consumers are uninformed about the basic principles of health reforms and their entitlements and therefore do not support them. The analysis introduced in this paper of the current situation in Georgia establishes that the rush to insurance-based medicine was more a rush from the previous system than a well-thought-out policy direction. After 70 years of a Soviet rule, the country had no institutional capacity to provide insurance-based health care. To achieve universal coverage, or at least ensure that the majority of the population has access to basic health services, government intervention is essential. In addition, educating the public on reforms would allow the reform initiators to fundamentally change the nature of the reform process from a “top-down” centralized process to one that is demand-driven and collaborative.