GENEVA - Governments must boost spending on primary health care by at least an additional 1 percent of their gross domestic product to widen coverage and stop impoverishing patients, the World Health Organization said on Sunday.
Public investment in primary health care close to home, including immunization, is key to extending coverage and saving lives, it said. “Even though it seems like a large sum, we know most countries can actually afford to do this based on their domestic resources. It is only a handful of countries that requires international aid to scale up their primary health care,” Salama said.
Yet if current trends continue, allowing for population growth, up to 5 billion people will miss out on health care in 2030, the target for universal health coverage set by world leaders in 2015, it said.