Private sector key player in universal healthcare

[Photo: Courtesy]

Let me start with distressing statistics. Every year, close to 100 million people globally get back under the poverty line, living on less than $2 a day due to the expenditure incurred by spending out of pocket funds to seek medical care. This is distressing because it is happening against the backdrop of economic progress across many African countries. Does it mean that the cost of healthcare is reducing the benefits from economic growth? To an extent, that is true. In Kenya for instance, nearly one million people slide into poverty annually due to the burden of healthcare.

This ‘catastrophic expenditure’, a jargon used by the World Bank to explain the cost of healthcare relative to household income, affects not only the poorest but also the middle class, who lose their investments and savings to treat themselves or their relatives. Non-Communicable Diseases are the main causes of poverty in the developing world, but are regarded as a threat in developed countries.