Health System Transformation in Myanmar: Are the Current Changes Promising?

This is a time at which the global movement for universal health coverage (UHC) is under intense review.  As an isolated country which recently opened up to the world, Myanmar has endorsed the goal of achieving UHC by 2030. However, current evidence has shown that there will be significant challenges for Myanmar to achieve this target.  The Myanmar health system comprises a pluralistic mix of public and private systems both in financing and provision. It was ranked the second worst in terms of ‘overall health system performance’ by the WHO in 2000. According to World Bank (2012), the country’s out-of-pocket payment burden is one of the highest in the world, at 81% of total health expenditures, resulting in high levels of catastrophic health expenditure. About three-quarters of Myanmar’s citizens, including the poorest and most marginalized communities, find themselves with very limited access to essential health services. And too many of these same populations suffer a further burden of being pushed, or kept, in poverty because they have to pay for their health care. Recognizing the fragility of its health system, Myanmar launched some transformations in the health sector in 2011. The most significant changes were increasing the health budget four-fold since 2011, launching some health insurance programs in some areas, starting to collaborate with a diversity of actors in the health sector, and major structural changes in the Ministry of Health, Myanmar. This colloquium will reflect upon these transformations and discuss how the changes will shape Myanmar’s future health system, drawing upon comparisons with health reforms in other South East Asian countries.

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After receiving her MBBS degree from the University of Medicine (Mandalay), Phyu Phyu worked for two years at a public hospital. In 2009, she became an active researcher at the Department of Medical Research (Upper Myanmar). As a researcher, she participated in various clinical and public health researches and presented papers at national and international conferences. She was also actively involved in the welfare of underprivileged groups in Myanmar. She earned her PhD in Epidemiology from the Prince of Songkla University, Thailand in 2013. After her PhD, she continued her work at DMR (Upper Myanmar) as a research officer as well as a member of the secretariat of the Academic Committee. She was also as a field supervisor in two national surveys on HIV and RH commodities and services in Myanmar. She has also published journal articles on equity, gender differences and RH services utilization among the poor.

At APARC, Phyu Phyu will study the current trends of Myanmar health policies in general, as well as the specific sex education programs of the country. She will investigate how Myanmar/Burmese culture affects the objectives of the current sex education programs at schools based on the perceptions of adolescent students, teachers and parents.