The Graduate School of Public Health of Seoul National University and the WHO Collaborating Centre of Health System and Financing provided Training on Social Health Insurance and Health Care Financing for four weeks from September 15th to October 10th, 2014. Professor Soonman Kwon, Director of WHOCC, was the director of the training program.
Funded by KOFIH (Korea Foundation for International Healthcare), this training program invited five senior managers from Ethiopia Health Insurance Agency (EHIA). Core faculty members of the SNU School of Public Health and WHOCC gave daily lectures, which were complemented by site visits and discussions at NHIS (National Health Insurance Service) and HIRA (Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service), the insurance agency of Korea.
To provide technical assistance to Ethiopian Health Insurance System and help the trainees translate the learning into practice, this program included mentoring in Ethiopia after the training program. Professor Soonman Kwon visited Addis Ababa and provided lectures to executive managers of EHIA as well as consultancy on health insurance policy. Dr. Mengistu, Director of EHIA, said Professor Kwon’s lectures were so stimulating and “magic bullets.”