Health systems in action: Kazakhstan: 2022 edition

Overview

Kazakhstan has recently established a mandatory health insurance system, with the Social Health Insurance Fund becoming the purchaser of publicly paid health services in 2020. Recent health reforms have aimed to improve health service accessibility, equity and efficiency. The state-guaranteed basic package of health services has been complemented by a package of services funded by mandatory health insurance. Spending on health from public sources was around 60% in 2019, although this was a decline from around 75% in 2009. Conversely, the share of out-of-pocket payments as a percentage of health expenditure increased to 33.9% in 2019.

Life expectancy at birth in Kazakhstan has been increasing steadily, to 73.1 years in 2017, but as in many other countries, the COVID-19 pandemic had a major detrimental impact and, according to national data, life expectancy at birth decreased to 71.4 years in 2020, a decline of 1.8 years compared with 2019. Measures have been taken to address the inappropriate use of antimicrobials, but implementation of the national AMR plan is still in its early stages.