Living with chronic conditions: the dual challenge of equitable access and financial protection
Thursday, May 29 2025
90 minutes
7am Bogata | 8am EDT | 1pm GMT | 4pm Tbilisi | 8pm Manila
The World Bank and the World Health Organization, together with partners, have launched a new country-focused webinar series exploring key issues in health financing, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), and mental health.
The second session takes place on Thursday, May 29 and will focus on adequate financing protection for people living with chronic conditions, with speakers from the Philippines, Georgia, and Colombia sharing their country experiences.
People living with chronic conditions are especially vulnerable to inadequate financial protection in health systems. Ongoing care often requires repeated out-of-pocket payments for medicines, tests, and visits—costs that accumulate and drive financial hardship. Medicines are a major contributor to this burden. As a result, individuals may delay or forgo necessary care, including preventive and early treatment, worsening health outcomes over time. Disease-specific studies on conditions like diabetes, cancer, respiratory and heart disease highlight how financial barriers prevent timely, appropriate care. These struggles deepen health inequities, particularly among economically vulnerable populations, and underscore the urgent need for stronger financial protection.
This webinar will review the service access and financial hardship issues faced by people living with non-communicable diseases or mental health conditions.
Building on the experience of a set of countries, the webinar will include a review of the state of knowledge, a discussion on empirical challenges to document these issues and a review of possible health system and health financing interventions to address them.
Speakers include: Jumana Qamruddin (World Bank), Matt Jowett (WHO), Aleli Kraft (University of the Philippines), Lela Sulaberidze (Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs, Georgia), Claudia Vaca (Public Defender’s Office, Universidad Nacional de Colombia), Gil Shapira (World Bank) and Gabriela Flores (WHO).
The session will be conducted in English and interpreted simultaneously into Arabic, Chinese, French and Spanish. It will be interactive: you will be able to address your questions to the panelists.
Register