Financing Universal Health Coverage in Lebanon through Health Taxes

Abstract

Despite recurrent promises of achieving universal health coverage (UHC) in Lebanon, limited progress has been achieved. Lebanese people continue to face significant barriers to accessing affordable and comprehensive healthcare, leading to a catastrophic burden of out-of-pocket expenses. Concurrently, approximately 55% of the population lacks access to essential healthcare services and 40% of the Lebanese population does not benefit from any form of formal healthcare coverage. Challenges to attain universal health coverage include: The draft Universal Health Coverage law proposed in 2023 by the health parliamentary committee fails to address how resources will be allocated to fund UHC (NNA, 2023). The revised law does not specify the methods or evidence that was used to determine the recommended tax rates (NNA, 2023). Within the national health strategy, SO.2.1.3 is focused on increasing health financing through the taxation of harmful products and allocating the generated revenues for health-related purposes. However, this strategy may face challenges due to the existing legal framework that hinders the earmarking of funds (MOPH, 2023). Elements to address the problem include:1> Implementing a health tax model for financing UHC. 2> Identify Effective Channels for Allocating Health Tax Revenue to Finance UHC. To ensure adequate implementation of health taxes and allocation to UHC a variety of implementation considerations need to be kept in mind including tax evasion, smuggling and theft, economic constraints, resistance, and administrative challenges.