Developing Countries and Healthcare

¶ … Universal Health Coverage One major initiative from the World Health Organization has been to improve global public health by improving access. The WHO has created a coalition calls for a (WHO, N.d.): "A new global coalition of more than 500 leading health and development organizations worldwide is urging governments to accelerate reforms that ensure everyone, everywhere, can access quality health services without being forced into poverty.

The coalition emphasises the importance of universal access to health services for saving lives, ending extreme poverty, building resilience against the health effects of climate change and ending deadly epidemics such as Ebola." The statement calls something other than common conceptions of what is referred to as "universal healthcare" in the West. However, "access" to healthcare in the developing world is typically thought of along three dimensions (Evans, Hsu, & Boerma, 2013) Physical accessibility.

This is understood as the availability of good health services within reasonable reach of those who need them and of opening hours, appointment systems and other aspects of service organization and delivery that allow people to obtain the services when they need them. Financial affordability. This is a measure of people's ability to pay for services without financial hardship. It takes into account not only the price of the health services but also indirect and opportunity costs (e.g.

the costs of transportation to and from facilities and of taking time away from work). Affordability is influenced by the wider health financing system and by household income. Acceptability. This captures people's willingness to seek services. Acceptability is low when patients perceive services to be ineffective or when social and cultural factors such as language or the age, sex, ethnicity or religion of the health provider discourage them from seeking services. Universal healthcare in the West is often thought of as a single payer system.

In such a system the government basically acts as the insurer of all of the country's citizens. If a citizen becomes hurt or sick, there is no cost, or low cost, to the individual other than what they pay in their taxes to fund the system. Most modern nations have already adopted some form of a single payer system as these create many efficiencies in healthcare.

However, the United States has yet to adopt a single payer system and the level of health in this country is comparatively low compared to similar nations while the costs of the system are also comparatively high. Yet the WHO's conception of a universal healthcare system is slightly different. The WHO calls for "universal access" as opposed to universal healthcare coverage.

Therefore, the goal is to not necessarily to request that governments provide insurance to their populations, rather merely to provide "affordable" access that will not significantly negatively affect the populations in the county. Furthermore, there are many benefits to expanding the healthcare system globally. Many of the emerging viruses, such as Ebola for example, require a worldwide effort in order to mitigate a rapid spread of the disease. Providing increased access also requires that an increased health infrastructure be built to provide healthcare.

This infrastructure can also be used to help stop the spread of deadly diseases. "Ebola is only the most recent example of why universal health coverage is the most powerful concept in public health," said Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, Assistant Director-General for Health Systems and Innovation at the World Health Organization. "Investing in strong, equitable health.