By Fatou I Touray
As the right to health is ‘one of the fundamental rights of every human being’, Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is at the center of current efforts to strengthen health systems and improve the level and distribution of health and health services. The importance of health financing as a component of the health systems has continued to gain increasing prominence in global health since UHC become the focus of health in the SDGs era. As level of financing is rarely sufficient, it is extremely important for policy makers to focus on tracking resources and ensure adequate revenues are channeled to the health sector, one can confidently say that if funding to the health sector is inadequate, then we will not make headway in improving the health status of the nation.
In The Gambia so far, we have not made much head way with regards to reducing the cost of accessing care for the Gambian people, especially the poor and deprived groups. Out of pocket expenditure is still above 20% and there is no prepayment mechanism to finance the delivery of the health care to the poor and needy proportion of the population. This is about to change.
The Government of The Gambia through His Excellency The President, Mr. Adama Barrow has already began implementing plans to provide social health insurance to the Gambian people especially those who are not able to pay for healthcare. This landmark initiative will intensify our efforts in terms of progressing toward UHC. However, the government cannot do it alone; it is in this regard that today’s event is organized to brief members of the National Assembly and other stakeholders on the key principles of Universal Health Coverage and health financing. This will help to facilitate the nationwide consultations on the options available to us as Gambians, for ensuring that all Gambians can have equal access to healthcare as and when needed.
This is the first consultation we are making with National Assembly Members, but we will continue to consult with a wide range of stakeholders to come up with a viable health financing insurance scheme for The Gambia.
On behalf of the government, the health ministry is taking this opportunity to thank the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, World Health Organization and World Bank for their continued support to the health sector in The Gambia. It is hoped that this collaboration will be intensified during 2020 when the planned UHC milestone is hope to be achieved.
To all our partners, we urge you to have an objective policy dialogue with us regarding the best way to put The Gambia on the path to Universal Health Coverage. The ministry wish to express sincerely gratitude and urge you to continue with this spirit in all endeavors we are making to improve the health sector.