One billion people cannot afford healthcare — WHO
In a global report on financing health systems, the United Nations health body said all countries, rich and poor, could do more toward getting universal coverage and urged them to think about ways to increase efficiency and use new taxes and innovative fund-raising measures to boost access to healthcare.
"For many, health services just don't exist, for others they are not affordable. When they're not affordable it means you either choose not to use them or you suffer severe financial hardship," David Evans, the WHO's director of health systems financing, said in a briefing on the report's findings.
The World Health Report 2010 lays out steps countries could take to raise more funds and reduce financial barriers to obtaining healthcare, and to make health services more efficient.
It found that to stop payment for healthcare impoverishing people, direct, out-of-pocket payments should make up less than 15 to 20 percent of a country's total health spending.
Yet currently, in 33 mainly low- and middle-income countries, direct payments from individuals receiving healthcare still account for more than 50 percent of total health spending.
It suggested governments should look at diversifying sources of revenue from levies such as "sin" taxes on products like tobacco and alcohol, currency transaction taxes, and national "solidarity" taxes on certain sectors.
If India were to implement a levy of 0.005 percent on foreign exchange transactions, it could raise $370 million per year, the report said. Gabon raised $30 million for health in 2009 by imposing a 1.5 percent levy on companies handling remittances and a 10 percent tax on mobile phone operators; Kazinform cites Arab News.
See www.arabnews.com for full version.
