Academics from the UK and Kazakhstan had worked together to discuss the challenges and opportunities associated with the transition to the mandatory social health insurance in Kazakhstan at the workshop in March 26-27, 2018 in Astana at Nazarbayev University.

In 2015, a group of researchers from the London School of Economics and Nazarbayev University received a Newton Fund Institutional Links Programme research grant from the British Council for the project titled “Macroeconomic Effects of the Health Policy Reform in Kazakhstan”. The project aimed to undertake analysis of the macroeconomic and welfare effects of health financing reforms in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan started its process to transition to the mandatory social health insurance. This decision reflected a strong government commitment to ensuring universal health coverage for the entire population, including the vulnerable and the poor, while simultaneously aiming to decrease the healthcare system’s burden on the public budget.

During the workshop the researchers delivered the main findings of the research, related to the economy-wide implications of the transition to the mandatory social health insurance in Kazakhstan, households’ out-of-pocket medical expenditures, and uncovering the determinants of healthcare providers’ well-being.

The event had brought together the researchers working on the project in Kazakhstan and UK. The invited speakers from the LSE Health and University of Bath delivered the presentations on the universal health care coverage in the middle-income countries, patient health behavior and competition in the healthcare in the UK.

The results of the workshop will be shared with the relevant decision-making bodies within the Kazakhstani government, as well as publication in peer-reviewed journals.