About the Conference
In response to requests from Caribbean governments to ‘do more’ in health’, Heads of Caribbean Social Security Organizations at their 17th General Meeting (Belize City, June 2006) agreed to establish a Caribbean forum for discussing approaches, challenges and lessons learnt in addressing health financing matters.
As such, these Health Financing Conferences have been organized to share knowledge, test ideas, build capacity as we learn from those who have direct and indirect responsibility for planning or administering health financing initiatives.
Recognizing that knowledge in health and related health financing matters do not reside with a single professional group, the Conferences have actively expanded participation by involving experts and officials with first-hand health experience from international organizations, Ministries of Health, health insurers, third party administrators as well as health services networks, research agencies, IT companies and academic institutions.
The thirteen (13) previous Conferences were hosted by and held in:-
Year | Location | Hosts |
2006 | Turks & Caicos Is. | National Insurance Board (NIB) |
2007 | Aruba | General Health Insurance (AZV) |
2008 | Trinidad & Tobago | National Insurance Board (NIB) & Ministry of Health (MOH) |
2009 | St Maarten | Department of Public Health (DPH) |
2010 | Belize | Social Security Board (SSB) |
2011 | Bermuda | Bermuda Health Council (BHEC) & Health Insurance Department (HID) |
2012 | Curacao | Social Insurance Bank (SVB) |
2013 | Jamaica | National Health Fund (NHF) |
2014 | Trinidad &Tobago | HEU, Centre for Health Economics (HEU) |
2015 | Turks &Caicos Is | National Health Insurance Board (NHIB) |
2016 | Bonaire | Health Insurance Office (ZVK) |
2018 | Suriname | State Health Foundation (SZF) |
2019 | Anguilla | Anguilla Social Security Board (ASSB) |
The attached Debriefing Note (2019) summarises the main presentations, issues and suggestions from the 13th Conference in Anguilla, November 8—10, 2018.
This year’s Conference, coordinated by the HEU, Centre for Health Economics in collaboration with Pan American Health Organisation is being hosted by the Ministry of Health, Wellness and the Environment and the Medical Benefits Scheme of Antigua and Barbuda. This year’s conference will be held at The Royalton Antigua Resort & Spa.
As in past Conferences with different themes, this year’s focus is on ‘Confronting the Financing Challenges of COVID-19 and the Unfinished Universal Coverage Agenda’.
Particular attention will be centred on:-
- financial impact and coping strategies given the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic globally and particularly in the Caribbean;
- fiscal space for health given economic challenges;
- financial progress and plans to address the unfinished agenda of Universal Health Coverage in the Caribbean including issues of efficiency, financial protection and public-private partnerships as well as re-structuring health financing institutions;
- new challenges to confront such as childhood obesity and new directions to consider such as digitization of health records and data analytics.
As will be seen from the Program (to be posted shortly), we have a well-planned mix of:
- feature papers, panel discussions and expert commentaries;
- Caribbean and non-Caribbean speakers;
- new and experienced presenters;
- and, of course, the full benefits of open one-on-one sharing of insights, experiences and suggestions from participants during and outside Conference hours.