More than 400 million people across the world live without access to essential health services, while millions are being forced into poverty as their governments are unable to provide adequate healthcare, a new study by the World Bank and WHO found.
The authors of the
98-page report titled, ‘Tracking Universal Health
Coverage,’ claims to be the first study to measure progress
towards universal health by assessing health service exposure and
how much countries spend on health care.
The world’s most disadvantaged people are missing out on even
the most basic health services http://t.co/l17H04EeZZ #UHC
— WHO (@WHO) June 12,
2015
Covering 37 nations
between 2002 and 2012, the report focused on people’s ability to
gain access to essential health services by looking at seven
components: family planning, antenatal care, skilled birth
attendance, child immunization, antiretroviral therapy, tuberculosis
treatment, and access to clean water and sanitation.
antiretroviral therapy, tuberculosis treatment, and access to
clean water and sanitation.antiretroviral therapy, tuberculosis
treatment, and access to clean water and sanitation.
Researchers found that over 400 million people lacked access to
at least one of these essential services.
“This report is a wakeup call: 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 Director of Health, Nutrition and Population at the World
Bank Group.
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The study also revealed that 17 percent of the world’s population
spanning across 37 countries, are being driven to live in extreme
poverty on $2 per day because they had to cover all or a
significant portion of their health treatment bills.
“These high levels of impoverishment, which happen when poor
people have to pay out of pocket for their own emergency health
care, pose a major threat to the goal of eliminating extreme
poverty,” says Dr Kaushik Basu, Senior Vice President and
Chief Economist at the World Bank Group. “As we transition to
a post-2015 development era, we must act on these findings, or
the world’s poor risk being left behind.”
To reverse the figures, the authors recommend governments strive
to achieve a health coverage that reached a minimum of 80 percent
of the population.