BERLIN: More than 100 million people are plunged into poverty every year by illness or “catastrophic” medical bills, the World Health Organisation said on Monday, launching a global drive for universal health care.

“In my view, universal coverage is an admirable goal and a timely one. We have to bite the bullet,” said WHO Director General Margaret Chan, presenting the report in Berlin.

“This year’s WHO report is designed to encourage every country in the world to adopt policies that will extend policies to more people and reduce the number of people who risk financial ruin,” added Chan.

The agency’s annual report, devoted this year to financing health systems, underlined that the need for universal health coverage “has never been greater” with the economic slowdown, globalisation of disease and ageing populations that need more care for chronic conditions.

“If health systems do not find the right answers now, the bill further down the line is going to keep getting higher and bigger,” Chan warned.

Since 2005, the WHO’s 192 member states have decreed that everyone should have access to health services and no one should suffer financial hardship as a result.

“On both counts the world is a long way from universal coverage,” the report said.

The UN health agency found that in countries that depend heavily on people paying for their services when they seek care, “health bills push 100 million people into poverty each year” as many suffer “catastrophic costs.” The most successful health care systems in Europe, Japan, Chile, Mexico, Rwanda and Thailand were based on pooled resources, helping to spread the financing burden, it added.

The report highlighted three “fundamental, interrelated” problems that stopped countries moving closer to universal coverage.

They included an over-reliance on such direct payments, the absence of the full range of care and treatment, and the “inefficient and inequitable use” of resources.—AFP