Dear all,

 

I hope that this email finds you well.

 

According to the result of our doodle poll, we will have 2 separate calls. The dates and times are the following:

 

·         Wednesday, May 20 at 14.00 hours CET (UTC+2) via Zoom (see document attached for link to join the meeting)

·         Thursday, May 21st at 11.00 hours CET (UTC+2) via Skype (I will be adding you to a group call with your Skype user name)

 

The purpose of this call is to share views and ideas taking into account the initial proposal of the Chair (attached). This discussion is an important step in preparation of the ‘virtual’ TC Forum to be held on June 10th. Mr. Fachmi Idris will be able to join the meeting on Wednesday only.

 

Kindly please mark your calendars for your preferred option.

 

Attached please find a list of the TC Health members for 2020-2022.

 

Please do not hesitate in case you have any questions. If you are not able to join either meeting, please let me know and we can schedule another one. We want to be able to collect everyone’s input.

 

With best regards,

Maya

 

Maya Márquez-Román

Acting coordinator TC Health

 

International Social Security Association

T : +41 22 799 70 66

E : marquezroman@ilo.org

www.issa.int

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Vice-Chairs of the TC Health,

 

I hope this email finds you well.

 

Following to the previous communication from Fachmi Idris, Chair of TC-Health, I would like to kindly remind you to please state your availability on this link here for our upcoming virtual meeting next week. I would then send everyone an email on the agreed day tomorrow by the end of the day.

 

Ideally we would have a meeting in which all TC members are present. If we would have the call at 14.00 hours CET time (UTC+2), then we would be able to have everyone in the call at the same time. This time is the only time frame that allows all TC-Health members to be reached at a ‘reasonable’ time of day. To illustrate, it will be 7am in Peru and 9pm in Korea. I understand the very busy schedules that you must be subject to, so in case this is not possible, we would have a separate call with another set of members.

 

We intend to use Skype. Please provide your Skype ID and Skype email address. In case you do not have the application on your computer or phone, it is possible to download it free of charge here.

 

The purpose of the call is to share views and ideas taking into account the initial proposal of the Chair (attached). This discussion is an important step in preparation of the ‘virtual’ TC Forum to be held on June 10th.

 

You are encouraged to share your views in advance in writing. The handbook (attached), explains the elements to consider in the development of the work plan.

 

You can access here all relevant documents, such as the Program & Budget 2020-2022.

 

Please do not hesitate to reach out in case of any questions.

 

With best regards,

 

Maya

 

Maya Márquez-Román

Acting coordinator TC Health

 

International Social Security Association

T : +41 22 799 70 66

E : marquezroman@ilo.org

www.issa.int

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Vice-Chairs of the TC Health,

 

I hope this email finds you safe and healthy.

 

Kindly find below (and attached) an email from Prof. Fachmi Idris, Chair of the Technical Commission on Medical Care and Sickness Insurance (TC Health).

 

Looking forward to our work together,

 

Maya

Maya Márquez-Román

Acting coordinator TC Health

 

International Social Security Association

T : +41 22 799 70 66

www.issa.int

 

 

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Dear all,

 

I hope you and your loved ones are well during these unsettling times.

 

To read this message in French or Spanish, please refer to the attached documents “Email_FR.pdf” and “Email_ES.pdf”.

 

Let me start by thanking you all for agreeing to act as vice-chairs of the ISSA Technical Commission on Medical Care and Sickness Insurance (TC Health). The current commission is a perfect mix of seasoned members and new faces – and I am looking forward to working with all of you so we can make the 2020-2022 ISSA triennium a success. We are starting our work in very unusual and taxing times when in all our countries people and economies are hit by pandemic. One of the minor but still very unfortunate effects of this is that I will not be able to meet you all in person in Geneva in June of this year. However, I hope that during this triennium we will be able to greet each other in person more than once. In the meantime, I hope we all will do our best to make the use of technology to advance our work.

 

A couple of logistic points. Maya Márquez-Román will be the acting coordinator of this TC on behalf of the ISSA. Further, I would like to introduce to you to Suciati Mega Wardhani, Assistant Deputy Director of Relations at BPJS Kesehatan, a senior who will be helping me during this triennium. Please make sure that you copy Maya and Suciati on all correspondence. Maya will be scheduling our initial virtual meeting where we will discuss the TC Health work plan on the week of May 18^th- 22^nd. This email is to start the discussion in the preparation for this meeting. As necessary, we will also be scheduling meetings in groups according to language to facilitate gathering the input of everyone involved.

 

As you can see from the attached documents that Dominique La Salle sent to all TCs, mandatory work plan items for this triennium fall under four main groups:

 

1.      Work related to ISSA Social Security Development Priorities

2.      Work related to existing Guidelines

3.      Contribution to the new Guidelines on Business Continuity and Resilience

4.      Contribution to ISSA events

 

Let me provide you with my initial thoughts on each of the items above.

 

1.      Work related to ISSA Social Security Development Priorities

ISSA has identified four priority topics for the 2020-22 triennium:

a.       The future of social security administration and management

b.      Meeting the evolving needs of an ageing population

c.       Social security coverage in a changing world

d.      The role of social security in promoting inclusive growth and social cohesion.

My initial suggestions are based on two main principles: (a) we need to be focused in our activities, and (b) some of the topics could be addressed through individual reports, while others could be addressed as a session in the upcoming ISSA events.

 

In my view, our commission can definitely work on topics (b) and (c). We could also work on topic (d). For topics (b) and (c) based on the discussions we had in Brussels, the ISSA wishes to focus on a very old population. As many of us have seen, the current pandemic has demonstrated the inadequacies of long-term care (LTC) systems in many countries. My proposal is to continue the work on the previous triennium on the possibilities of affordable LTC coverage and further develop the concept of ageing-in-place. For topic (c) specifically, we can produce a report on achieving universal health coverage (UHC). Such documents may become a valuable resource for ISSA member institutions.

 

For topic (d), I was thinking that we can explore the feasibility of gathering case studies or best practices and see if we gather enough interest from you and materials to perhaps build on a comparative case study. At BJPS Kesehatan, we have a study that focuses on improving access to health insurance as a means to promoting social cohesion through reducing the Gini ratio since Universal Health Coverage (UHC) was established.

 

2.      Work related to existing Guidelines

TC Health is expected to contribute to the review of the ISSA Extension of Coverage guidelines. At the same time, I suggest that prior to our initial meeting in mid-May you take some time to look at remaining three sets of guidelines that are to be reviewed, and share your opinion on whether our commission can contribute. You can find all the ISSA guidelines online here: https://ww1.issa.int/guidelines.

 

 

3.      Contribution to the new Guidelines on Business Continuity and Resilience

In my view this is an extremely timely project. Health institutions have been faced with the challenges of continuing services despite the pre-existing shortage of staff and financial resources. I think that there is an opportunity for all of us to organize a webinar or a series of webinars in which we exchange our experiences whilst trying to adapt to the new circumstances. This should be very helpful for ISSA members, especially for those working in the same field as us.

 

4.      Contribution to ISSA events

As some of you may know, during the last triennium, we had a seminar in October 2017 hosted by NHIS Korea, and we held a long-term care webinar for Latin America in November 2018. For this new triennium, the upcoming LEAD conference, hosted by BJPS Kesehatan, will focus on management practices, but we can also have a parallel session or a panel on medical care and sickness insurance. During our first call, I would like to gauge the possibility of your institutions willing to sponsor or heavily contribute to this area of work.

 

5.      Discretionary work plan items

This category is for projects that do not fit neatly with the above, but are of great interest to you. Please feel free to come up with a proposal on the understanding that most of the work will be carried out by your institution. The deliverables will be subject to review by the technical commission.

 

Please provide your thoughts, comments and suggestions on all 5 topics discussed above by end of day May 14. I am looking forward to our work together and to our first call.

 

For the latter, please also state your availability for our meeting by stating your preference here by May 15. Please note that all times are in Central European Time (CET) or UTC+2. Due to the time differences, it will be challenging that we can all meet at the same time, but we can try.

 

Finally, in order to get to know each other better, we want to put together a booklet with your names, current professional title, short professional bios, and a picture. I am attaching mine in case you would like to follow this format. For the picture, please make sure to send one that is in high resolution and that you would be ok with to put on the ISSA’s website.

 

Thank you for your time and attention.

 

Stay safe and healthy,

 

 

Fachmi

 

Fachmi Idris

Chair of the Technical Commission on Medical Care and Health Insurance

President Director BPJS Kesehatan

Indonesia

e-mail: fachmi.idris@bpjs-kesehatan.go.id

 

Attachments can be viewed and downloaded through the following link: https://issabox.issa.int/index.php/s/aEynZH8pCWm5Rd5

 

The items that you will be able to find on My ISSA box are the following:

-          Handbook on how to develop the TC Work Plan 2020-2022 (EN, FR, ES)

-          Presentation on the work-plan from the previous triennium 2017-2019 (EN)

o   Report on Ageing-in-place and long-term care (EN, FR, ES)

-          Existing guidelines to review (EN, FR, ES):

o   Actuarial work

o   Communications

o   Coverage extension

o   Sustainable employment

-          Sample format for bios (EN)