Medical expenses shouldn't force people into poverty, says Hasina at UNGA

Sheikh Hasina has urged countries to work together at the regional and global levels in a bid to ensure universal health care throughout the world and prevent medical expenses from driving people into poverty.

Reazul Bashar from New Yorkbdnews24.com
Published : 23 Sept 2019, 07:12 PM
Updated : 23 Sept 2019, 07:12 PM

The prime minister made the call during a high-level multi-stakeholder meeting on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) at the UN General Assembly in New York on Monday.

She co-chaired the discussion alongside her Spanish counterpart Pedro Sanchez.

The Bangladesh leader noted that in many countries resource mobilisation is a "fundamental obstacle" to the implementation of UHC, which aims to ensure sufficient quality health services for all without causing financial hardship.

"Effective global partnership to formulate healthcare financing strategy for each country could be an important tool to achieve UHC and ultimately SDGs by 2030," Hasina said.

"I believe, collaboration amongst countries at regional and global level is fundamental to accelerate progress in Universal Health Coverage."

She stressed the need for strong primary healthcare systems in order to curb communicable and non-communicable diseases, pointing out that "90% of health needs can be met at the primary healthcare level".

Highlighting the steps taken by Bangladesh to address the issue, the prime minister said, "We have established about 14 thousand ‘Community Clinics’ across the country to provide primary healthcare to rural areas so that the last one in line can be reached. Forty patients take health services from each community clinic per day and 90% of them are women and children."

These community clinics on average provide over 10 million people with medical care each month, she added.

Hasina also emphasised ensuring equal access to healthcare for all and warned that the absence of such equity could result in political instability and "serious erosion of social cohesion".

"Socio-economically disadvantaged people most often cannot access services from privately-owned health care providers resulting in inequity in overall health care benefits," she said.

According to her, equity in healthcare could be achieved by extending affordable and efficient services to the poorest segment of society through the Universal Health Coverage.

"We need to ensure that no family is forced into poverty because of health care expenses."

The prime minister underscored the commitment to provide essential health services to all individuals and communities under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and said, "Although some major progress has been made, half the world's population still lacks access to necessary health services."

"About 100 million people are pushed into extreme poverty each year because of health expenses, and 800 million people spend at least 10 per cent or more of their household budget on health‑care expenses."

Reminding world leaders of an individual's right to a standard of living adequate for his or her health and well-being as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Hasina noted that progress cannot be solely measured in terms of economic growth and wealth creation "unless the access to and distribution of the wealth are just and proper".

"We have found out that securing universal health coverage is one of the pre-conditions for establishing a righteous and fair society as our health equates to our existence."

The panelists of the event were Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Maha Taysir Barakat, chair of the Board of the RBM Partnership to End Malaria, Winnie Byanyima, executive director of Oxfam International, Jeffery Sachs, professor and director of Colombia University's Center for Sustainable Development.taj