To respond to demand from JLN member countries, the Joint Learning Network Population Coverage Technical Initiative has finalized five country case studies and a paper on the topic of extending health insurance coverage to informal sector populations and their families as part of UHC reforms.
This paper is focused on the challenge that many countries face in “Closing the Gap” and extending health coverage to non-poor informal sector workers and their families. While many countries are working to achieve UHC, a “missing middle” has emerged because social health protection is usually provided to the poor and to workers in the formal employment sector but not to those who fall between those groups. Coverage is often lacking for non-poor informal-sector workers and their families because of the relative difficulty of identifying and enrolling them and in financing their coverage in an efficient and equitable way. The paper was developed based on a literature review and in-depth interviews with country experts and synthesizes the experiences of selected countries in covering the non-poor informal sector as part of an effort to achieve UHC.
