Uzbekistan
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Health systems in transition
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4 December 2024
Health systems in action 2024: Uzbekistan
Health Systems in Action Insight Series (2024)
Country overview
All citizens are formally entitled to the publicly financed basic benefits package. The 1996 Law on health protection defined a basic benefits package to be funded by the state, which includes primary care, emergency care, care for “socially significant and hazardous” conditions, and specialized care for groups of the population classified by the government as vulnerable.
The state-run health system consists of three distinct hierarchical layers: the national (republican) level, the viloyat (regional) level, and the local level made up of rural tumans (districts) or cities, with a relatively small private sector. The Ministry of Health is the major player in organizing, planning, managing and regulating the Uzbek health system.
General government expenditure (mostly raised through taxes) and private expenditure (mostly out-of-pocket) are the two main sources of revenue. Public sector funding originates from the state budget and follows the expenditure protocols developed by the central government. Most of it flows into public facilities, while a small share is directed towards the private sector, such as through the reimbursement for outpatient pharmaceuticals for selected groups of the population.
Primary care services are provided by public primary care facilities, outpatient clinics of public secondary and tertiary institutions, and private outpatient clinics. In rural areas, the first point of contact is the rural physician point, while secondary outpatient care is provided by outpatient clinics of central tuman hospitals. Since 2021 Uzbekistan has been implementing a pilot project of health system reforms around service delivery and health financing in the Syrdarya Oblast, which if successful are intended to be scaled up.
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