New evidence compiled by the World Health Organization and the World Bank shows that Covid-19 will slow Kenya’s progress toward the Universal Health Coverage.
The UHC plan will be launched in January next year.
The finding is contained in two complementary reports, launched on the UHC Day on December 12, highlighting the devastating impact of Covid-19 on people’s ability to obtain health care and pay for it.
The reports also reveal that many people are being pushed into extreme poverty because they have to pay for health services out of their own pockets.
The 2019 Kenya Population and Housing Census shows the number of the poor in Kenya at 19.5 million.
The World Bank reports that by last November, income loss had pushed two million more Kenyans into poverty.
“There is no time to spare,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, in a statement.
The WHO report is titled Tracking Universal Health Coverage: 2021 Global monitoring.
Tedros added:“All governments must immediately resume and accelerate efforts to ensure every one of their citizens can access health services without fear of the financial consequences. This means strengthening public spending on health and social support, and increasing their focus on primary health care systems that can provide essential care close to home.”
The National Health Insurance Fund covers just 18 per cent of Kenyans and the 32 private health insurers only one per cent.
Dr Tedros added: “Prior to the pandemic, many countries had made progress. But it was not robust enough. This time we must build health systems that are strong enough to withstand shocks, such as the next pandemic and stay on course towards universal health coverage.”
The new WHO/World Bank reports also warn that financial hardship is likely to become more intense as poverty grows, incomes fall, and governments face tighter fiscal constraints.
“Even before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, almost 1 billion people were spending more than 10 per cent of their household budget on health,” said Juan Pablo Uribe, Global Director for Health, Nutrition and Population, World Bank.
“This is not acceptable, especially since the poorest people are hit hardest,” he added.
In the first two decades of this century, many governments had made progress on service coverage.
In 2019, prior to the pandemic, 68 per cent of the world’s population was covered by essential health services, such as pre-and post-natal care and reproductive health services; immunization services; treatment for diseases like HIV, TB and malaria; and services to diagnose and treat noncommunicable diseases like cancer, heart conditions, and diabetes.
But countries had not made such advances in ensuring affordability. As a result, the poorest groups and those living in rural areas are the least able to obtain health services, and the least likely to be able to cope with the consequences of paying for them.