400M lack access to basic health services, says WHO-World Bank report

This photo taken on May 27, 2015 shows a young patient with broken left leg crying in pain in his hospital bed at the Philippine Orthopedic Center in Manila. AFP PHOTO

Around 400 million people in the world have no access to basic health services, a joint report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and World Bank said on Friday.

The report, which tracks universal health coverage, said a huge chunk of the global population have to spend large sums of money to access essential health coverage, including access to clean water and sanitation, family planning, child immunization, antenatal healthcare, antiretroviral therapy, skilled birth attendance, and tuberculosis treatment, among others.

“It shows that we’re a long way from achieving universal health coverage. We must expand access to health and protect the poorest from health expenses that are causing them severe financial hardship,” said Dr. Tim Evans, senior health director of nutrition and population at World Bank.

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WHO defined universal healthcare as the access to “quality, essential health services that people need, without being exposed to financial hardship.”

The report said 6 percent of the total population across 37 low- and middle-income countries were being “pushed into extreme poverty” due to high spending in basic health services.

“When the study factored in a poverty measure of $2/day, 17% of people in these countries were impoverished, or further impoverished, by health expenses,” it added.

WHO and World Bank said ideally, at least 80 percent of a country’s population should be covered by basic health services without having to suffer “catastrophic health payments.”

In a statement, Dr. Kaushik Basu, senior vice president and chief economist at the World Bank, said the high cost of basic health services would be a roadblock to poverty alleviation and other development goals.

“As we transition to a post-2015 development era, we must act on these findings, or the world’s poor risk being left behind,” Basu added.

Dr. Ties Boerma, Director of WHO’s Department of Health Statistic and Information Systems, said tracking global progress would be a big challenge to all countries as more nations express commitment in improving universal health coverage.

“The report shows that it is possible to quantify universal health coverage and track progress towards its key goals, both in terms of health services and financial protection coverage,” he said.

Echoing Boerma, Rockefeller Foundation managing director said monitoring progress would be an essential tool to “build more resilient health systems.”

“As the saying goes, ‘what gets measured gets done.’ With countries around the world taking steps to provide universal health coverage, the ability to identify gaps and effectively measure progress will add critical momentum to this global movement,” Myers said. IDL