The main goal of the round table was to widely discuss the draft Law “On Medical Insurance”, developed with the assistance of experts from “Public Finance Reform in Uzbekistan” project. The draft Law is aimed at creation of legal basis for effective regulation of interrelations in the area of medical insurance, formulation of guaranteed and favourable conditions to receive qualified medical services, as well as establishment of legal, financial and organizational basis for implementation of medical insurance system.

Effective functioning of the healthcare system depends on a number of factors, including the organization of healthcare institutions activities in such a way that enables formation of healthy lifestyle and provision of qualified free medical services to all citizens under the social services framework. This system can successfully function when medical insurance develops and becomes one of the main components of the national social protection system.

During the round table the current situation and development perspectives of medical insurance in Uzbekistan, the conceptual basis of the draft Law, as well as approaches to financing healthcare system in the conditions of well functioning medical insurance system, were widely discussed.

Moreover, active discussions were held on the following issues of introducing medical insurance: state financing of medical sphere, state program on reforming the healthcare sector, perspectives and risks of introducing mandatory medical insurance, issues of popularization of voluntary medical insurance and obstacles in the development of voluntary medical insurance took place. It was noted that both voluntary and mandatory medical insurance can play a positive role in increasing the quality of medical services, attracting additional resources into healthcare, protecting rights and interests of wide strata of population.

Special attention was paid to the measures on increasing the economic interest of medical institutions in improving the conditions and procedures of provision of medical services by creation of competitive environment in the sphere of healthcare. Materials and recommendations, based on the discussion results make a valuable resource that can be used in further improvement and adoption of the draft Law “On Medical Insurance”.

The participants of the roundtable include representatives from Senate, Oliy Majlis, Cabinet of Ministers, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, insurance companies, and private companies, international and public organizations of Uzbekistan.