As the world marks World Health Day on April 7, governments are in the spotlight over their failure to invest adequate resources in public healthcare systems, undermining many people\u2019s right to health.<\/p>\n
Under international human rights law, States have an obligation to ensure that healthcare goods and services are available, accessible, acceptable, and of good quality.<\/p>\n
\u201cAdequate funding is a vital part of a states\u2019 ability to fulfill these obligations, and they have a duty to use the maximum of their available resources towards realizing rights, including the right to health\u201d\u00a0observes the Human Rights Watch.<\/p>\n
The World Health Organization (WHO) is expressing similar concerns. It notes that despite at least 140 countries recognising health as a human right in their constitution,\u00a0 many are yet to pass laws to ensure their populations are entitled to access health services.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis underpins the fact that at least 4.5 billion people \u2014 more than half of the world\u2019s population \u2014 were not fully covered by essential health services in 2021\u201d it states.<\/p>\n
The organization further regrets that the right to health of millions is increasingly coming under threat from diseases and disasters which loom large as causes of death and disability.<\/p>\n
Similarly, conflicts are devastating lives, causing death, pain, hunger and psychological distress.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe burning of fossil fuels is simultaneously driving the climate crisis and taking away our right to breathe clean air, with indoor and outdoor air pollution claiming a life every 5 seconds\u201d it observes.<\/p>\n
In Africa, member states have however been applauded \u00a0for their efforts to accelerate progress towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC).<\/p>\n
Kenya is one of the countries that has enacted new laws that will revolutionise the healthcare system.<\/p>\n
President William Ruto administration is also rolling out the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF), one of his key policies, which seeks to provide affordable healthcare to all Kenyans.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are reforming their health policies and revamping legislative and regulatory frameworks, including National Health Insurance Schemes (NHIS) and Social Health Insurance (SHI) schemes to reduce catastrophic out-of-pocket health expenditures\u201d says WHO WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti.<\/p>\n
He acknowledges that several countries have started operationalizing an integrated Life Stages Approach, which prioritizes the health of individuals at every stage of their life and the care needed at any time.<\/p>\n
\u201cHealth is not only a fundamental human right but also central to peace and prosperity. Thus, addressing health inequities requires intentional efforts\u201d he emphasizes while calling for the intergration of the vulnerable groups.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsiderations of vulnerable groups must be assessed. Their needs ought to be purposively integrated into health programmes at all levels to accelerate progress toward UHC. We know that many in our region still need help with access to quality essential health services due largely to unfulfilled rights\u201d.<\/p>\n
Dr Moeti pointed out disparities in the coverage of key reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health interventions which he said remain significant, with the rural dweller, the poor, and those in hard-to-reach areas being the most disadvantaged.<\/p>\n
\u201cI urge our Member States to uphold the progress towards fulfilling the right to health, agreed by all nations of the world in 1948 and enshrined in the WHO Constitution\u201d he appealed.<\/p>\n
The theme for World Health Day 2024 is \u2018My health, my right\u2019.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s theme was chosen to champion the right of everyone, everywhere to have access to quality health services, education, and information, as well as safe drinking water, clean air, good nutrition, quality housing, decent working and environmental conditions, and freedom from discrimination.<\/p>\n
Additional information by WHO<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The post World Health Day: States faulted for failing to invest in Public Healthcare<\/a> first appeared on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As the world marks World Health Day on April 7, governments are in the spotlight over their failure to invest adequate resources in public healthcare systems, undermining many people\u2019s right to health. Under international human rights law, States have an obligation to ensure that healthcare goods and services are available, accessible, acceptable, and of good […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23575\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}