Meeting Report

WORKSHOP ON DESIGNING FINANCIAL

PROTECTION POLICIES

10–12 September 2019

Manila, Philippines
RS/2019/GE/42(PHL)
WPR/DHS/HPF(03)/2019

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION

REGIONAL OFFICE FOR THE WESTERN PACIFIC

MEETING REPORT

WORKSHOP ON DESIGNING FINANCIAL PROTECTION POLICIES

Convened by:

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION

REGIONAL OFFICE FOR THE WESTERN PACIFIC

Manila, Philippines
10–12 September 2019

Not for sale

Printed and distributed by:

World Health Organization

Regional Office for the Western Pacific
Manila, Philippines

May 2020
 NOTE

The views expressed in this report are those of the participants of the Workshop on Designing
Financial Protection Policies and do not necessarily reflect the policies of the conveners.

This report has been prepared by the World Health Organization Regional Office for the
Western Pacific for Member States in the Region and for those who participated in the
Workshop on Designing Financial Protection Policies in Manila, Philippines from 10 to
12 September 2019.
 CONTENTS

BACKGROUND .................................................................................................................................................... 1

SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................................................... 2

1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................................. 3

1.1 Meeting organization .................................................................................................................................... 3

1.2 Meeting objectives ........................................................................................................................................ 3

2. PROCEEDINGS ................................................................................................................................................. 3

2.1 Day 1 ............................................................................................................................................................ 3

2.2 Day 2 ............................................................................................................................................................ 4

2.3 Day 3 ............................................................................................................................................................ 5

3. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................................................. 5

3.1 Conclusions .................................................................................................................................................. 5

3.2 Recommendations......................................................................................................................................... 7

3.2.1 Recommendations for Member States ................................................................................................... 7

3.2.2 Recommendations for WHO ................................................................................................................. 7

ANNEXES ............................................................................................................................................................. 9

Annex 1. List of participants, temporary advisers and Secretariat

Annex 2. Meeting agenda

Keywords:

Universal health insurance / Healthcare financing / Health equity / Delivery of health care
 BACKGROUND

Financial protection is an important component of universal health coverage (UHC), which is defined
as people having access to quality health services without financial hardship. The United Nations
Member States in 2019 reiterated their commitment to to achieve UHC by 2030. They recognized “that
universal health coverage implies that all people have access, without discrimination, to nationally
determined sets of the needed promotive, preventive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative essential
health services, and essential, safe, affordable, effective and quality medicines and vaccines, while
ensuring that the use of these services does not expose the users to financial hardship, with a special
emphasis on the poor, vulnerable, and marginalized segments of the population.” They have committed
to “stop the rise and reverse the trend of catastrophic out-of-pocket health expenditure by providing
measures to assure financial risk protection and eliminate impoverishment due to health-related
expenses by 2030, with special emphasis on the poor as well as those who are vulnerable or in
vulnerable situations”.
Ensuring country progress towards UHC places great importance on monitoring. Tracking the progress
towards UHC requires definition of relevant indicators, which in turn should be part of an overall
framework of monitoring health system performance that includes the levels of coverage for health
interventions and financial risk protection, with a focus on equity. Monitoring is effective when it
informs the policy-makers on the impact of existing or new policies towards achieving the goals of
UHC and thus has to be adjusted to local context as well as usable for global monitoring.
Many families are pushed into poverty by having to pay for health-care services out of their own pockets.
Governments in the WHO Western Pacific Region need to invest in improving health-care access and
to ensure that patients are protected against financial hardship due to health-care payments. Each
country is on a different path towards UHC, with varying progress and challenges. Remaining
interventions and policy prerogatives towards UHC vary depending on the country’s context and health
system. There are countries that may need to expand service delivery, provide access to quality health-
care services and safeguard patients from financial hardship.

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 SUMMARY

Financial protection is an important component of universal health coverage (UHC), which is

defined as access to all needed quality health services without financial hardship. The United
Nations Member States in 2015 reiterated their commitment to ensuring UHC.

Governments in the WHO Western Pacific Region need to invest in health-care access, given that
many families are pushed into poverty by paying out of their own pockets. It is important for
governments to include investments in health as part of their policies. There is no common set of
recommendations that can be applied in order to catch up on providing adequate UHC. Measures
that should be taken depend on country context and its health system. Some countries may need
to focus on improving service capacity, quality and access, while others may need to focus on
reducing the proportion of the population suffering from financial hardship.

WHO supports countries to monitor financial protection as part of the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) indicator as well as to design policies to protect people from facing financial
hardship. Approaches to monitor financial protection may yield variable results, and a good
appreciation of the variation and nuances may be meaningful and insightful for policy-making.
The rationale behind the methodologies for measuring financial risk protection and how this
relates to UHC is critical in the formulation of good policies, backed by robust evidence and data.

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 1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Meeting organization

The Workshop on Designing Financial Protection Policies was held in Manila, Philippines, from 10 to
12 September 2019. It brought together technical staff of ministries of health in charge of estimating
and/or analysing financial protection indicators and staff from statistics bureaus in charge of analysis
of household data, with a focus on health. In addition, policy-makers and academic researchers on
financial protection were also invited to participate.

1.2 Meeting objectives

The objectives of this workshop were: to perform statistical analysis for monitoring the Sustainable
Development Goal indicator SDG 3.8.2 (proportion of population with large household expenditures
on health as a share of total household expenditure or income), to build capacity in the production of
the financial protection estimates and to provide evidence for health reform to protect the population
against financial hardship. These intermediary objectives led to the main objective to catalyse the use
of such evidence to aid in national monitoring and policy discussions and reforms. The workshop was
designed for both technical staff and policy-makers to help their understanding of key concepts related
to financial burden associated with using health services.
Specifically, the objectives of the meeting were:
• to translate country data into SDG indicator 3.8.2 and perform related statistical analysis for
SDG monitoring as evidence of financial protection; and
• to link the SDG indicator to policy design for improving financial risk protection.
At the end of the workshop, the participants were able:
• to produce estimates of key financial protection indicators for their country, including
indicators for equity analysis; and
• to generate an evidence base for policy interventions to prevent financial hardship for patients
and their families when accessing health-care services.

2. PROCEEDINGS

The workshop was attended by 33 participants from eight countries, with five experts and 14 Secretariat
members. A list of participants is available in Annex 1 and the meeting agenda in Annex 2.

2.1 Day 1

The opening session officially launched the meeting and introduced the workshop content and flow.
Participants introduced themselves and shared their expectations to inform organizers how to proceed
and what to focus on during the workshop.

Day 1 presenters and participants discussed mainly (i) why financial protection matters, (ii) what the
health financing policies towards financial protection are, and (iii) what analytical frameworks and data
can be used in analysing financial protection. The discussions covered the rationale of financial
protection as a key component of UHC, together with why it is important to measure and monitor. The
main approach is to use the SDG 3.8.2 methodology where catastrophic spending is measured as a share

3
of a household’s total budget as its capacity to pay (denominator), whereas existing methodologies use
a different denominator for capacity to pay, including actual spending on food, normative spending on
food and normative spending on basic needs. Additionally, to link the goals of UHC to poverty
alleviation, WHO recommends measuring the instances where health-care expenditures might drive
people below the poverty line. The depth and incidence of poverty is measured through the difference
in the poverty headcount and poverty gap before and after incurring out-of-pocket (OOP) spending, and
different poverty lines are used. The rationale behind methodologies for measuring financial protection
not just through monitoring OOP payments is that even relatively small OOP payment amounts can
drive a low-income household into financial hardship. The experts also discussed the differences across
the approaches and conceptual challenges related to estimating financial protection.

How many people incur OOP health expenditures, how much is spent OOP, and for what kinds of health
services and products were critical initial questions for the estimation and analysis of financial
indicators. What needs to be understood ultimately is how OOP payments for health impact a
household’s financial situation. The importance of drivers of financial hardship due to OOP payments
in relation to monitoring the utilization of health services and unmet needs was also stressed. Countries
presented their experiences and shared challenges with regard to monitoring and measuring financial
protection in the Western Pacific Region. The country presentations highlighted policies that have been
put in place to enhance financial protection. Some countries in the Region raised concerns that, even
with increasing government subsidies for financing health care and expanded coverage, OOP payments
are rising. However, experts noted that such a situation is common and that improving service coverage
from low levels tends to also increase how much people spend on health, and thus possibly the number
of households which are above the threshold for financial hardship. However, this tends to decrease
when higher levels of coverage are achieved.

Following the discussion on the importance of monitoring financial protection, data requirements were
also enumerated. More meaningful estimation and analysis of financial protection indicators require
key variables in the household survey, including health expenditures and total household expenditures
either at the individual or the household level. To go beyond reporting the indicator and to better inform
policy, household surveys should contain information on: the composition of OOP payments, health-
care utilization, foregone care, and sources of income to pay for health care. This is to allow for an
understanding of the drivers of OOP payments for health. Statistics experts emphasized the importance
of standardizing household surveys to ensure cross-country comparability. In the Western Pacific
Region, 27 countries have existing household surveys that meet the data requirements to monitor
financial protection, but country participants revealed issues in capacity and access to data preventing
them from producing estimates routinely. Therefore, experts highlighted the importance of working
closely with colleagues from the national statistics offices. Household surveys in the Region are usually
conducted every 3–5 years, which depending on country context may be sufficient for routine and
timely monitoring of financial protection. Finally, the diversity in survey years and modules gives rise
to comparability issues across countries.

2.2 Day 2

Day 2 focused on how to measure financial protection using the country data that participants had
brought with them and on policy-related discussions on financial protection in each country. Two
concurrent sessions were conducted: policy focus and technical focus (training on STATA code
application).

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To produce the indicators of financial protection domestically, participants used their household
income/expenditure survey data to estimate OOP payment statistics, including the statistics of interest
and the approaches to measure them. Technical experts explained how different modules based on
different data collection methods, using different recall periods, different levels of comprehensiveness
(whether all categories of health services and products are covered) and different levels of specificity
(how detailed each category is) can be addressed to produce estimates of financial protection.

Statistics of interest to interpret the financial protection indicators include: (i) the percentage of
population with any OOP health expenditure; (ii) the mean total OOP health expenditure per capita per
day; and (iii) the median total OOP health expenditure per capita per day, when possible disaggregated
by type of health service/product and/or type of provider. A complementary approach was also
presented as a methodological option that goes beyond the budget share or SDG approach, which uses
a normative approach focusing on basic needs beyond food. In practice, producing these statistics entails:
(i) aggregating information collected at different levels (item/provider/individual/household),
(ii) dealing with missing information, (iii) re-scaling to the time unit of interest, and (iv) merging
information across different modules.

To further appreciate the differences in financial protection policies across a wide spectrum of countries,
policy discussions drew from the experiences of high-income countries and highlighted the experiences
of Member States in the Western Pacific Region through poster presentations. Several examples from
high-income countries were discussed, including how policies have changed over time to improve
financial protection. They emphasized that even with high levels of insurance coverage financial
protection is an ongoing challenge and that monitoring financial protection is important to evaluate
health system performance and ensure equity in the population. Further, the link between health and
poverty alleviation was also emphasized through an open discussion across countries and with experts.
Policy-makers from the participating Member States showed their poster presentations that listed the
existing policy framework and discussed the planned reforms to increase financial protection as well as
gaps in evidence and need for support.

2.3 Day 3

Day 3 brought together the policy-makers and data analysts to prepare short country presentations
combining the generated evidence on financial protection with their policy framework. Participants
discussed what information these financial protection indicators provide policy-makers and how they
can best be used in decision-making. In groups, countries presented their estimation results either using
the budget share approach or the partial normative approach using basic needs. Furthermore, these
presentations showcased how to link results to policy interventions or options.

3. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

3.1 Conclusions

The burden imposed by OOP health payments results in financial hardship for millions of people in the
Western Pacific Region who seek care. Analysis of financial protection supports policy-makers to
monitor the changes of catastrophic expenditure and poverty impact over time, evaluate the impact of
policy changes and support policy dialogue. The global monitoring of the SDGs might not be sufficient
to capture the country-specific policies and cultural details, justifying more in-depth analysis of
financial hardship and impoverishment in Member States with the support of WHO and other partners.

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Households can be impoverished or face catastrophic health expenditure because of payments for
accessing needed health services. Fundamentally, the assurance that people will not suffer financial
hardship while using health-care services recognizes that health systems should leave no one behind.
Many ways of measuring financial risk protection directly reflect the trade-offs people have to make
between paying for the health services they need and paying for other necessities such as food and basic
education. Analysts and policy-makers need to be mindful of the limitations and relevance of each
indicator for their setting and country context.

Two commonly applied concepts capture the lack of financial risk protection, catastrophic expenditure
and impoverishment. The first, catastrophic health expenditure, occurs when a household’s OOP
payments are above a threshold of their expenditure, meaning it has to forgo the consumption of other
necessary goods and services. The second concept, impoverishment, occurs when OOP payments push
households below a defined poverty line. OOP health expenditures are defined as catastrophic according
to SDG indicator 3.8.2 when they exceed the threshold of 10% or 25% of a household’s expenditure.
Households are considered impoverished due to health spending when they fall below the absolute
poverty line of US$ 1.9 and US$ 3.2 per day (in 2011 purchasing power parity terms) or the relative
poverty line of 60% of household median income. These SDG indicators have several limitations as
they tend to show that richer households spend more on health, which might not be of a policy concern
and do not show the poor below the poverty lines falling even further into poverty.

Other measures of catastrophic expenditures have been developed using different measures of capacity-
to-pay without spending on necessities, rather than total income or consumption. The argument is that
everyone needs to spend at least some minimum amount on basic needs such as food and housing, and
it is of policy concern mainly when health spending would crowd out such essential spending. Since
expenditures on necessities absorb a larger share of a poor household’s consumption, such measures
tend to be more sensitive to income distribution within countries. Many Member States in the Western
Pacific Region use 40% of non-food expenditure as a threshold of financial hardship, deducting
normative food expenditure from household spending (usually defined as median of the 45th–55th
percentile) as a proxy for the necessities spending. In the WHO European Region, an amount
representing spending on three basic needs (food, housing (rent) and utilities) is considered. Using this
ability-to-pay incidence of catastrophic spending tends to be more sensitive to the income distribution,
although the European method also differs by reflecting the household structure or grouping the
households in different quintiles because of their non-essential spending (using the median of the 25th–
35th percentile of food consumption in the sample, and actual utilities and rent). For some Member
States in the Western Pacific Region, the definition of basic needs as in the European Region might not
be relevant, and sometimes the expenditure on food can be a sufficient proxy for basic needs expenditure.
This requires further analysis and evaluation vis-a-vis the cultural and historical context in each Member
State. For global comparability purposes, the SDG 3.8.2 indicators should continue to be used. It is for
discussion whether a specific indicator for the Western Pacific Region should be established to compare
the Region’s Member States as well as their distinct cultural, historical and economic development.

It is feasible to monitor financial protection on a regular basis using data from nationally representative
household consumption expenditure surveys (or household multipurpose surveys, income and
expenditure, family income and expenditure surveys). These data rely on the same routine household
expenditure surveys that are used to monitor SDG target 1.1 on poverty. A good understanding of the
survey design is needed to properly plan the empirical data analysis and critically interpret the findings.
The survey design does significantly influence the findings. To better inform policies, surveys should
include the structure of health spending, preferably using the COICOP (Classification of Individual

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Consumption According to Purpose) classification. To achieve higher policy relevance, information
needs to be matched with data on health-care utilization, sources of income used for OOP payments
(borrowing, savings), or other details relevant to the country context (e.g. the insurance status of the
person).

The design of the health expenditure module is critical to go beyond simple monitoring of financial
protection to try to understand the drivers of OOP health spending and answer relevant health financing
policy questions. Multipurpose surveys with a consumption module designed to monitor poverty and a
health-seeking behaviour module that captures utilization and unmet needs are the most valuable source
of information to link financial protection to all coverage policies.

Headcount indicators or share of OOP payments in overall health spending, which measure the number
of people affected or average OOP spending on health, do not give the full picture of the problem.
Additional measures of the intensity of financial hardship provide useful insights into the nature of OOP
payments in different settings.

UHC requires that individuals who access health-care services do not incur financial hardship. Even in
countries where the population is covered by government or social health insurance schemes,
catastrophic spending on health and impoverishment due to health spending can still occur. Therefore,
routine and timely monitoring of financial protection goes beyond reporting the SDG indicators, and it
is important to utilize the data provided in relevant surveys to better inform policy-making and further
understand the drivers that lead to such financial hardship.

3.2 Recommendations

3.2.1 Recommendations for Member States

Member States are encouraged to consider the following:

1) Further strengthen their capacity in undertaking financial risk protection estimation and
analysis to inform policy.
2) Further examine and formulate equitable and progressive financial risk protection policies.
3) Identify challenges in the estimation and analysis of financial protection and to understand how
this relates to UHC.
4) Continue using robust evidence and data in formulating policies to further financial protection
given their contexts and challenges.
5) Further engage ministries of health and national statistics offices to improve timely monitoring
of financial protection.
6) Routinely produce financial protection estimates consistent with when relevant surveys are
being conducted.
3.2.2 Recommendations for WHO
WHO is requested to consider the following:

1) Support Member States in designing policies protecting the poor and vulnerable against
financial hardship and in strengthening financial protection:
a) Based on country data availability, build evidence and facilitate policy dialogue with
in-country stakeholders on the outcomes and evaluate policies implemented to date.

7
 b) Provide technical support in developing a monitoring system for financial protection within
the country’s regular health information system.
c) Carry out an in-depth analysis and applications, sensitivity analysis and design of
policy-relevant, reliable, income distribution and culture-sensitive measures of financial
protection given the context of Member States in the Region and their needs.
d) Support knowledge sharing, data analysis, interpretation and policy dialogue in the
estimation of financial risk protection indicators using the most appropriate methods for
the country.
e) Emphasize the importance of the cross-sectoral approach in formulating financial risk
protection, including the important involvement of the statistical agencies in data cleaning,
management and the financial risk protection calculation.
f) Facilitate sharing of experiences and best practices among Member States through various
channels including regional workshops, publications and other products.
2) Engage in the global discussion on the appropriateness of the SDG indicators for Member States
in the Western Pacific Region; coordinate with other WHO regional offices and headquarters
to ensure policy-relevant, reliable, income distribution and culture-sensitive measures of
financial protection given the context of Member States in the Region and their needs.
3) Collaborate with other agencies and partners supporting Member States in financial protection
monitoring to ensure consistency in estimates being reported.

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 ANNEXES

Annex 1. List of participants, temporary advisers and Secretariat

1. PARTICIPANTS

CAMBODIA Mr KIM Net

Director
Social Statistics Department
National Institute of Statistics
Ministry of Planning
386 Preah Monivong Blvd
Phnom Penh
Tel. No.: +855 16 770 769
Email: kimnet2010@yahoo.com

Mr CHINDA Phan
Deputy Director
Social Statistics Department
National Institute of Statistics
Ministry of Planning
386 Preah Monivong Blvd
Phnom Penh
Tel. No.: +855 12 867 581
Email: phanchinda@yahoo.com

Dr IR Phor
Associate Professor and Deputy Director
National Institute of Public Health
Ministry of Health
#80 Samdach Penn Nouth Blvd (289)
Phnom Penh
Tel. No.: +855 12 657 725
Email: jpor@niph.org.kh

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CAMBODIA (cont.) Mr SOPHEAP Phou
Staff
Department of Planning and Health Information
Ministry of Health
#80 Samdach Penn Nouth Blvd (289)
Sangkat Boeungkak II, Khan Tuol Kork
Phnom Penh
Tel. No.: +855 23 885 916
Email: phousopheap@gmail.com

CHINA Mr WANG Tao

Division Director
National Health Commission
1 Nanlu, Xizhimenwai
Beijing 100044
Tel. No.: +8610 68792694
Email: wangtao@nhc.gov.cn

Mr ZHAI Tiemin
Associate Professor
China National Health Development
Research Center
Level 4, B3 Building
No 9 Chegongzhuang Xi Street
Beijing 100044
Tel. No.: +8610 88385680
Email: ztm@nhei.cn

Ms SHANG Mengqi
Principal Program Officer
Department of Household Surveys
National Bureau of Statistics
Xicheng District
Beijing 100826
Tel. No.: +8613 683268278
Email: shangmq@stats.gov.cn

Ms XIAO Lin
Principal Program Officer
Department of Household Surveys
National Bureau of Statistics
Xicheng District
Beijing 100826
Tel. No.: +8615 201142830
Email: xiaolin@stats.gov.cn

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FIJI Mr Idrish KHAN
Director
Finance and Asset Management
Ministry of Health and Medical Services
Dinem House, 88 Amy Street, Toorak
Government Buildings
Suva
Tel. No.: +679 3215 711
Email: ikhan001@govnet.gov.fj

Ms Muniamma GOUNDER
Head
Planning and Policy Development
Ministry of Health and Medical Services
Dinem House, 88 Amy Street, Toorak
Government Buildings
Suva
Tel. No.: +679 3306 177
Email: muniamma.gounder@health.gov.fj

Ms Maria Talei Divuyaliyali MUSUDROKA

Principal Statistician
Household Survey Unit
Ministry of Health and Medical Services
Dinem House, 88 Amy Street, Toorak
Government Buildings
Suva
Tel. No.: +679 9962 271
Email: mariam@statsfiji@gov.fj
musudrokam@gmail.com

Mr Rupeni Boginivalu TAWAKE

Principal Statistician
Methodology Unit
Ministry of Health and Medical Services
Dinem House, 88 Amy Street, Toorak
Government Buildings
Suva
Tel. No.: +679 9676 735
Email: rtawake@statsfiji.gov.fj

LAO PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC Dr Latsamy SIENGSOUNTHONE

REPUBLIC Deputy Director General
Lao Tropical and Public Health Institute
Ministry of Health
Vientiane
Tel. No.: +856 21 250670
Email: slatsamy@yahoo.com

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LAO PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC Mr Suphab PANYAKEO
REPUBLIC (cont.) Deputy Director
Department of Finance
Ministry of Health
Vientiane
Tel. No.: +856 21 54853444
Email: laohealthfinancing@gmail.com

Dr Manithong VONGLOKHAM
Head
Department of Health Policies and
Health Systems Research
Lao Tropical and Public Health Institute
Ministry of Health
Vientiane
Tel. No.: +856 21 250670
Email: mnt.vonglokham@yahoo.com

Mr Ole SONEVILAY
Technical Staff
Research and Analysis
Lao Statistics Bureau
Ministry of Planning and Investment
Vientiane
Tel. No.: +856 20 55747797
Email: olesonevilay@yahoo.com

MALAYSIA Mr DINASH ARAVIND Radhakrishnan

Principal Assistant Director
National Health Financing Section
Planning Division
Ministry of Health
Level 3, Block E6, Parcel E
Kuala Lumpur
Tel. No.: +601 2233 4627
Email: dinash@moh.gov.my

Mdm PAZLINA WATY Che Pah

Assistant Director
Prices, Income and Expenditure Division
Department of Statistics Malaysia
Block C6, Kompleks C
Kuala Lumpur
Tel. No.: +60 1 8957 1446
Email: pazlina@dosm.gov.my

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MALAYSIA (cont.) Dr EE HONG Tan
Head, Centre for Health Equity Research
Institute for Health Systems Research
Ministry of Health Malaysia
Block B2 National Health Institutes Complex
Kuala Lumpur
Tel. No.: +60 3 3362 8506
Email: jdreehong@moh.gov.my
jdreehong@gmail.com

Ms IZZANIE Mohamed Razif

Research Officer
Section National Health Financing
Planning Division
Ministry of Health Malaysia
Level 3, Block E6, Parcel E
Kuala Lumpur
Tel. No.: +60 3 8883 2139
Email: izzanie.razif@gmail.com

MONGOLIA Ms BAYASGALAN Dashnyam

Officer, Monitoring, Evaluation and Internal
Audit Department
Ministry of Health
Government Building VIII
Olympic Street-2, Sukhbaatar District
Ulaanbaatar
Tel. No.: +976 99 156 448
Email: bayasgalan@moh.gov.mn
dbayasaa77@gmail.com

Ms MUNKHTSETSEG Lkhagvajav
Officer, Secondary Level Healthcare
Organizations Budget Planning
Division of Economics and Finance
Ministry of Health
Government Building VIII
Olympic Street-2, Sukhbaatar District
Ulaanbaatar
Tel. No.: +976 99 031 785
Email: tsetsee_0616@yahoo.com

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MONGOLIA (cont.) Ms ENKHTSETSEG Engkhbold
Specialist, Health Care Costing and
National Health Accounting
Division for Development Planning and Cooperation
Health Development Center
1st Street Sukhbaatar District
Ulaanbaatar
Tel. No.: +976 70 128 806
Email: enkhtsetseg@hdc.gov.mn
enhusndr0423@gmail.com

Ms MYAGMARKHATAN Batsuuri
Statistician
National Accounts and Statistical
Research Department
National Statistics Office
Government Building III
Ulaanbaatar
Tel. No.: +976 99 157 735
Email: international@nso.mn

PHILIPPINES Ms Laurita MENDOZA

Planning Officer IV
Health Policy Development and Planning
Bureau
Department of Health
San Lazaro Compound
Rizal Avenue, Sta. Cruz
Manila
Tel. No.: +63 917 6270417
Email: lmendoza.hpdpb@gmail.com

Ms Mariecar MANGOSONG
Planning Officer III
Health Policy Development and Planning Bureau
Department of Health
San Lazaro Compound
Rizal Avenue, Sta. Cruz
Manila
Tel. No.: +63 917 8255166
Email: mmangosong.hpdpb@gmail.com

Ms Camille RIVERA
Senior Economic Development Specialist
National Economic Development Authority
Amber Avenue
Pasig City
Tel. No.: +632 631 5435
Email: CFRivera@neda.gov.ph

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VIET NAM Mr NGUYEN Anh Quang
Official
Ministry of Health
138A Giang Vo, Ba Dinh
Hanoi
Tel. No.: +84 988 366 156
Email: quangna.khtc@moh.gov.vn
quangmoh@yahoo.com.vn

Mrs PHAN Thanh Thuy

Official
Division of Planning and General Affair
Department of Planning and Finance
Ministry of Health
138A Giang Vo, Ba Dinh
Hanoi
Tel. No.: +84 913 313 497
Email: thuypt.khtc@moh.gov.vn
phanthanhthuy75@gmail.com

Ms TO Hanh Thuy
Statistician
Social Environmental Statistics Department
General Statistics Office
54 Nguyen Chi Thanh
Hanoi
Tel. No.: +84 906 279 859
Email: tthanh@gso.gov.vn

Mr KHUONG Quynh Long

Researcher
Center for Health Sciences Research
Hanoi School of Public Health
North Tu Liem District
Hanoi
Tel. No.: +84 987 439 240
Email: kql@huph.edu.vn

2. TEMPORARY ADVISERS

Professor Hideki HASHIMOTO

Professor in Health and Social Behavior
The University of Tokyo School of Public
Health
7 Chome-3-1 Hongo
Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
Tel. No.: +813 5841 3512
Email: hidehashimoto-circ@umin.ac.jp

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 Ms Eunkyoung KIM
Researcher in Health Economics and Policy
School of Public Health
Seoul National University
1 Kwanak-ro, Kwanak-gu
Seoul, Republic of Korea
Tel. No.: +82 10 3101 3732
Email: keklemon@gmail.com

Professor Soonman KWON

School of Public Health
Seoul National University
1 Kwanak-ro, Kwanak-gu
Seoul, Republic of Korea
Tel. No.: +82 10 2276 2721
Email: kwons@snu.ac.kr

Ms Maria Teresa PEÑA

Freelance Consultant
School of Public Health
The University of Texas Health Science
Center at Houston
Houston TX 77030, United States of America
Tel. No.: +832 506 6977
Email: maria.t.pena@uth.tmc.edu

Dr ZHANG Yaoguang
Deputy Director and Associate Professor
National Health Commission
Survey and Evaluation Department
Centre for Health Statistics and Information
National Health Commission
Beijing, People’s Republic of China
Tel. No.: +86 13 910844351
Email: zhangyg@nhfpc.gov.cn

3. SECRETARIAT

WHO REGIONAL OFFICE Dr Peter COWLEY

FOR THE WESTERN PACIFIC
Coordinator
Health Policy and Financing
Division of Health Systems
WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific
United Nations Avenue
Ermita
Manila 1000
Philippines
Tel. No.: +632 5289951
Email: cowleypet@who.int

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 Mr Tomas ROUBAL
Health Economist
Health Policy and Financing
Division of Health Systems
WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific
United Nations Avenue
Ermita
Manila 1000
Philippines
Tel. No.: +632 5289849
Email: roubalt@who.int

Ms WANG Ding
Technical Officer
Health Policy and Financing
Division of Health Systems
WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific
United Nations Avenue
Ermita
Manila 1000
Philippines
Tel. No.: +632 5289883
Email: wangdi@who.int

Mr Ronald TAMANGAN
Consultant
Health Policy and Financing
Division of Health Systems
WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific
United Nations Avenue
Ermita
Manila 1000
Philippines
Tel. No.: +63 9773 831 528
Email: tamanganr@who.int

WHO REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE Mr MO Mai

IN CAMBODIA Technical Officer
Health Systems
World Health Organization
P.O. Box 1217
Phnom Penh
Tel. No.: +855 23 216610
Email: mom@who.int

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WHO REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE Ms Vanhpheng SIRIMONGKOUNE
IN LAO PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC National Officer
REPUBLIC Special Services Agreement
World Health Organization
P.O. Box 343
Vientiane
Tel. No.: +856 21 353902
Email: sirimongkhounev@who.int

WHO REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE Dr ERDENECHIMEG Enkhee

IN MONGOLIA Technical Officer
World Health Organization
Post Box 663
Ulaanbaatar-13
Tel. No.: +976 11 327870
Email: enkheee@who.int

WHO REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE Dr Albert Francis DOMINGO

IN THE PHILIPPINES Consultant, Health Policy and Financing
World Health Organization
Building 3
Department of Health
San Lazaro Compound
Rizal Avenue, Sta. Cruz
Manila
Tel. No.: +63 920 9080036
Email: domingoa@who.int

WHO REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE Dr CHU Annie

IN VIETNAM Technical Officer
World Health Organization
P.O. Box 52
Hanoi
Tel. No.: +63 908 8727348
Email: chua@who.int

WHO PACIFIC TECHNICAL Dr Wayne IRAVA

SUPPORT Technical Officer
Health Financing
World Health Organization
P.O. Box 113
Suva
Tel. No.: +679 3234107
Email: iravawa@who.int

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WHO HEADQUARTERS Dr Gabriela FLORES PENTZKE SAINT-GERMAIN
Health Economist
Health Systems Governance
World Health Organization
Avenue Appia 20
1211 Geneva 27
Tel. No.: +41 22 791 3095
Email: floressg@who.int

Dr Taketo TANAKA
Junior Professional Officer
Health Systems Governance and Financing
World Health Organization
Avenue Appia 20
1211 Geneva 27
Tel. No.: +41 22 791 1987
Email: tanakat@who.int

Dr XU Ke
Senior Health Financing and Expenditure Analyst
Health Systems Governance and Financing
World Health Organization
Avenue Appia 20
1211 Geneva 27
Tel. No.: +41 22 791 3508
Email: xuk@who.int

EUROPEAN OBSERVATORY ON Dr Jonathan CYLUS

HEALTH SYSTEMS AND Health Economist
POLICIES (OBS) Houghton Street
WHO EURO London WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom
Tel. No.: +44 (0) 20 7955 7295
Email: J.D.Cylus@lse.ac.uk

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Annex 2. Meeting agenda

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