How Corruption Impedes Universal Health Coverage
There is growing consensus that affordable, quality health care is a basic human right, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals include universal coverage as a target. But until an old foe – corruption and fraud – is defeated, the goal of health care for all will remain aspirational.
ISLAMABAD – Half of the planet cannot access essential health services. For many people, paying to see a doctor, obtaining medications, seeking family-planning advice, or even getting immunized against common illnesses is a choice between staying healthy and slipping into poverty. And, more than ever, the health-care options that poor people do have are being degraded by a familiar foe.