According to the World Health Organization, global spending on health was rising reaching up to $8.3 trillion in 2018. However, lower income

countries face severe health financing constraints, which slow their progress towards health security and universal health coverage.

With more than 445 million cases, 6 million deaths, and $10.2 trillion in Global healthcare, the Covid-19 pandemic has had a devastating

impact on health systems globally.

 

Why aren’t lower-income countries financing the healthcare sector efficiently?

Domestic health financing by lower income countries was financed primarily by private sources.  The average finance of health sending was

69% by private sources in low-income countries.  On the other hand, in upper middle and high income countries, private financing was only

38%.

 

Visual:

The visual below shows how different countries’ healthcare expenditure per capita (as a percentage of GDP) throughout different years

preceding the pandemic. It indicates that countries with lower GDP, spend less on healthcare.

 

The US has significantly higher healthcare expenditure per capita in comparison to other countries (16% of GDP).

 

On the other hand, being a low-income country, Pakistan’s healthcare expenditure does not exceed 3% of GDP.

 

Recommendations:

 

– International Comparisons to study whether countries with higher expenditures were able to fight the pandemic in a more efficient manner.

 

– Increase aid in lower-income countries to ensure equal access to healthcare.

– Invest in global common resources for health to enable global health security to fight any future health challenges that arise.