OREANDA-NEWS. November 23, 2015. The Inter-American Bank (IDB) has approved a \\$300 million loan to support the Dominican Republic's efforts to progressively consolidate the coverage of its social security system and improve the efficiency of health spending by expanding the reforms that the country already has been carrying out in these sectors.

This loan, the second of two, will continue to boost measures designed to strengthen the pension system and its comprehensive development. This will include changes in the definition of policies for increasing coverage; strengthening institutions that monitor the system and control evasion; establishing a registry of elderly people living in extreme poverty for the purpose of subsidies; and developing a plan to provide financial education to the population.

It will also improve the efficiency of the health sector by supporting the enactment of the law creating the National Health Service, an autonomous public entity; implementing Quality Health Policies, such as the approval of health service providers and the development of standards for the care of mothers and infants; and the approval of a new catalog of health benefits, among other measures.

These actions build upon the previous loan, which supported the consolidation of the pension system through changes in policies; improvements in the focus of the benefits and access to information; and institutional strengthening and support for the culture of social security. In the health sector, the first operation focused on establishing norms and regulations and the development and application of management tools to improve the efficiency of health spending.

The IDB's \\$300 million loan comes from ordinary capital, under the category of Programmatic Policy Based Loans.

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The Inter-American Development Bank is devoted to improving lives. Established in 1959, the IDB is a leading source oflong-term financing for economic, social and institutional development in Latin America and the Caribbean.The IDB also conducts cutting-edge research and provides policy advice, technical assistance and training to public and private sector clients throughout the region.