By Asma’u Ahmad
The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) says Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is key to achieving better health and well-being for all people, at all ages.
The Bauchi State Chairman of NMA, Dr Lamara Dottijo, made the remark at a Panel Session organised to mark “Physicians Week” in Bauchi on Friday.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) UHC is the state in which individuals and communities receive all health services they need without suffering from financial hardship.
It includes the full spectrum of essential, quality health services, from health promotion to prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care.
The world body also stated that “achieving UHC is one of the targets the nations of the world set when adopting the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015.”
The NMA chairman, therefore, stressed the need for UHC to ensure that no citizen was left out of essential and quality healthcare services whenever required.
Dottijo said “UHC can deliver disease prevention, health promotion and treatment for communicable and noncommunicable diseases, while ensuring that individuals are not driven into poverty because of high costs of treatments.
“Attaining UHC is thus essential to every nation’s economic productivity, health security, social stability, and to every individual’s well-being, security and productivity.”
Dr Khalid Abubakar from WHO said that the focus was now on strengthening primary healthcare, which was a vehicle toward achieving UHC.
He urged government at all levels to address challenges faced in the course of achieving UHC in Nigeria.
Also, Dr Mansur Dada, the Executive Secretary, Bauchi State Health Contributory Management Agency, said: “Health is a human right: no one should get sick and die just because he or she is poor or because they cannot access the health service they need.’’
Dada said that the contributory agency would work to bridge the gap of access to quality healthcare for all in the state.
Dr Adamu Muhammad, the state Project Coordinator, Nigeria State Health Investment Project (NSHIP), said that the Performance Base Financing (PBF) had paved the way for achieving the set target of UHC.
He added that “UHC is not an end in itself. Its goal is to improve the chances of every person attaining the highest level of health and well-being and contributing to socioeconomic and sustainable development.”
The UHC, according to WHO, enables everyone to access health services that address the most important causes of disease and death.
It ensures that the quality of those services is good enough to improve the health of the people who receive them.
However, UHC does not mean free coverage for all possible health interventions, regardless of the cost, as no country can provide all services free of charge on sustainable basis.
Also, UHC is not just about health financing, it encompasses all components of the health system.
This includes health service delivery systems, the health workforce, health facilities and communication networks, health technologies, information systems, quality assurance mechanisms, as well as governance and legislation.
