Albania: Health Care System in the Course of Health Reform. An Overview of Health Insurance System

Abstract

This paper introduces and analyses in general the Health Care System (HCS) focusing particularly on the Health Insurance
System (HIS) in Albania, as a country in a period of transition. The Government of Albania is in the process of reforming and
modernizing its healthcare sector and is moving towards the establishment of a more sustainable health financing insurance system. The
aim is to obtain a clear referential structure for the further development of the health insurance system and for the establishment of
effective, managing and administrative capacities This paper is prepared by exploring the published literature and collecting data through
secondary sources. Several data sources have been used to describe the health performance in Albania. The review includes several
references and, by covering OECD countries The concepts included here serve us to better know and understand the actual situation of
HIS, and what is more to be included in a “general plan” for the preparation of the directives for the organization, implementation,
observation and evaluation of the steps that have to be undertaken for the reformation of the health insurance in Albania. Albania
should develop an explicit, comprehensive revenue collection strategy that considers all available methods, such as direct taxation, indirect
taxation, social security contributions, voluntary health insurance, and user charges, in order to optimize revenue collection.