Towards a suitable health insurance system in Syria

The Syrian health care system has suffered many problems, such as financing the Syrian health care system via general taxation has failed to mobilize sufficient funds, out-of-pocket payment has formed a significant part to finance health services in Syria, and the fragmentation of health system financing and the absence of one risk pool. In addition, running of the publicly-financed health care lacks efficiency and accountability. The main objectives of this book are (1) Exploring which financing method is best suited for Syria in order to reach universal coverage (2) Designing three alternatives of health financing models to the current health system. The results of this study show that adopting the tax-based financing system as an alternative for the current system will be an impractical option to overcome these problems and achieve universal coverage, while adopting the social health insurance will more efficient, however, financing this system should be based on the general revenues beside social contributions.