More than half a billion people around the world were pushed to extreme poverty last year as they paid out of pocket for health care costs at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank said today.
The pandemic has disrupted health services around the world and the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, making it even harder for people to pay for health care, according to a joint statement from the two organizations.
“All governments must immediately redouble their efforts to ensure that all their citizens have access to health care without fear of financial repercussions,” said WHO Director-General of the Center Antanom Gebregesous.
The Center called on governments to focus even more on healthcare systems and to stay on track to achieve universal health coverage, which, according to the WHO, requires everyone to have access to the health services they need without difficulty. financially.
Healthcare is a major political issue in the United States, one of the few industrialized countries that does not have universal coverage for its citizens.
Worldwide, the pandemic has worsened things and immunization has fallen for the first time in ten years, with deaths from tuberculosis and malaria on the rise.
“Within a limited fiscal space, governments will have to make difficult choices to protect and increase health budgets,” said Juan Pablo Uribe, the World Bank’s director of health, nutrition and population.
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