Kazakhstan
Health systems in transition
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Health systems in action 2024: Kazakhstan
Country overview
Kazakhstan's health system is centrally governed by the Ministry of Health, which develops national health policies, regulates healthcare organizations, and defines benefits packages. Regional (oblast) health departments are responsible for delivering primary, secondary, and tertiary care. Primary health care (PHC) services are provided by general practitioners or a combination of district internists (for adults) and pediatricians (for children) working in polyclinics, which may be standalone or part of rural (rayon) hospitals. Specialized care is offered in larger polyclinics, ambulatory care centers, city hospitals, and regional or national hospitals.
The system increasingly focuses on a multidisciplinary, primary health care-based model, with recent reforms aiming at strengthening family medicine and expanding access to high-quality services in rural and remote areas.
Since 2020, two complementary benefit packages provide publicly funded health services: the state-guaranteed benefits package and the social health insurance package. Both are administered by the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) but have distinct funding pools. The state-guaranteed package is available to all legal residents, while the social health insurance package is based on contributions to the SHIF. Even without social health insurance coverage, people have access to a broad scope of publicly paid services such as emergency medical services, PHC services, specialized outpatient and inpatient services for acute cases, as well as prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, hepatitis, cancer, diabetes or poor mental health. The SHIF purchases health services from public and private healthcare providers.
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