Dec 13,2024
Geneva: After making a temporary effort to support their public healthcare spending during the peak pandemic phase, the World Health Organisation has reported that the governments across the world have cut down their average per capita spending on health in 2022 from 2021.
Released on the Universal Healthcare Coverage Day, the 2024 Global Heath Expenditure Report by the World Health Organization (WHO) states, “that the average per capita government spending on health in all country income groups fell in 2022 from 2021 after a surge in the early pandemic years.”
It also alarms that, “government spending on health is crucial to delivering UHC (Universal Healthcare Coverage) and its deprioritisation can have dire consequences in a context where 4.5 billion people worldwide lack access to basic health services and 2 billion people face financial hardship due to health costs.
Speaking over the development Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said, “while access to health services has been improving globally, using those services is driving more and more people into financial hardship or poverty. Universal Health Coverage Day is a reminder that health for all means everyone can access the health services they need, without financial hardship.”
As per the global healthcare advocacy body, during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020–2022, public spending on health – mainly via government health budgets –enabled health systems to respond quickly to the emergency. Government funding ensured that more people were protected and more lives were saved, in particular population-based public health interventions, versus other health financing schemes, during times of health emergencies.
“Public funding needs to budget for an affordable package of essential health services – from health promotion to prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care – using a primary health care approach”, the report added.
WHO’s report also flags that, “protecting people from the financial burden caused by out-of-pocket expenditure is fundamental but on the contrary out-of-pocket spending remained the main source of health financing in 30 low- and lower-middle-income countries.”
In 20 of these countries, more than half of total health spending in the country was paid for by patients out of their pocket, which contributes to the cycle of poverty and vulnerability.
The World Health Organisation has been tracking the healthcare expenditure of countries for the last 25 years and has established a Global Health Expenditure Database which consists of health expenditure data of more than 190 countries since 2000–and the Global Health Expenditure Report, which has been published annually since 2017.
Source: Healthworld