- According to the UNDP, only 20% of Africans can access quality health care easily.
- World Health Organization recognizes Rwanda as one of the few American countries to perform well on the goal of Universal health coverage.
- The Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Program (HEPR) has awarded 34 grants worth $177 million as of June 2022.
Rwanda is among the upcoming African countries trying to catch up to its sister countries. Today Rwanda is among the few African countries that strive to attain Universal Health Coverage, and this comes because 90% of Rwanda’s population has health insurance.
Understanding what exactly is Universal Health Coverage
Universal Health Coverage, or UHC, is used when a government can provide medical access to all its citizens regardless of where and when the patient requires it. It is a known fact that medical debt is among the top three causes of personal financial difficulties, alongside education bills. As a result, a UHC aims to provide the utmost quality health care to citizens without the excess worry of financial hardships that accompany it.
A UHC covers all the essentials within the health service; from health promotion to prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, maternity services and palliative care. Any nation can achieve UHC differently depending on its population, facilities and financial planning. Its flexible nature allows a country to decide what kind of care and age its UHC plan will cover. However, the critical component to achieving a UHC is to ensure that each individual has some form of medical coverage.
Also, Read Is Kenya the new entry point for the big pharma agenda?
For some time, the World Bank Group has dedicated its resources and efforts to ensure that each African country attains some form of Universal Health Coverage. Establishing such a massive project requires other elements and industries to achieve it.
They include the education system, human capital and manufacturing sector, and each has different roles to ensure that each citizen can acquire quality medical attention. Another crucial factor that Universal Health Coverage requires is inclusive policies and strategies that cover all individuals of different financial classes and demographic.
No single government in Africa can attain such balance through a single sitting. Improving each mentioned section will significantly improve UHC coverage in Africa.
Rwanda’s Universal Health Coverage
For some time now, Rwanda has improved many economic activities to improve its economic growth and achieve the status of a “developed country” in Africa. Among its many attempts attaining Universal Health Coverage is among the country’s few advantages over its peers.
According to Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, this initiative was set in motion decades before Rwanda had any hope of competing with its peers. He stated that the country’s combined efforts of evidence-based and people-centred strategies have led to the establishment of a functioning UHC strategy.
Fortunately, by focusing on establishing a UHC strategy, Rwanda has experienced the economic value of healthcare in various industries. Its government implemented Rwanda’s Universal Health Coverage strategy in three distinct phases.
Indeed, Rwanda’s government has increased the number of healthcare facilities from 1036 health posts in 2013 to 1700 in 2022. Each is geographically placed around communities ensuring that each individual has access to a nearby medical centre. This new initiative has decreased mortality by reducing the average time required to reach the nearest health facility from 95.1 minutes to 49.9 minutes.
Rwanda’s improved healthcare insurance
The second initiative taken to attain Rwana’s Universal Health Coverage is simplifying the demand side. On average, according to the UNDP, only 20% of Africans can easily access quality health care. This is due to several actors, such as distance, unawareness or price. Rwanda focused on creative extensive, and elaborate Community-Based Health Insurance Schemes to deal with this blight.
This strategy shows that a majority of Rwandans have access to healthcare services. Attaining health insurance in Rwanda is much easier than in most African countries. Its government has ensured that each citizen knows their affordable prices and its primary benefit of reducing out-of-pocket expenditures. Community-based health insurance in Rwanda went from 43.3% in 2005 to 92% in 2022.
Also, Read Kenya: President Kenyatta unveils Universal Health Coverage.
This single factor ensured the rapid success rate of Rwanda’s Universal Health Coverage. By focusing on those who cannot afford medical services, the government provides a way to set up an affordable plan to cater to their needs.
Finally, since the government understood the economic value of healthcare, it focused on healthcare by allocating it substantial revenue. The country’s health sector development budget has increased from $ 151 million to $212 million in under a year. As a result, the government has displayed its commitment to improving Africa’s economy. It has focused on providing quality health to its citizens.
According to Sabin Nsanzimana, it called for more evidence-based policy reforms to improve and deepen Rwanda’s universal health coverage. This provided a general direction for both a long and short-term model for service. They achieved Rwanda’s universal health coverage by focusing on Primary Health Care and health financing. Although it took some time, Rwanda accomplished a feat that more advanced African countries still needed to do.
How to attain a UHC
Several factors were vital for the government to achieve Rwanda’s Universal Health Coverage, and it is also important to remember that strict rule sets do not bind a UHC scheme. However, from a practical viewpoint, there are necessary steps that an African country must take to attain such a feat.
These steps will also involve the cooperation of other industries to ensure that these schemes are well established. They include;
Improving health systems.
With the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, it became painfully clear that Africa lacks the equipment to handle any mass pandemic. The virus’s devastating impact on several African countries proved that most governments neglected their hospital infrastructure.
Hospitals around Africa were flooded with patients, each waiting for facilities exhausted before the pandemic. The number of hospitals available paled compared to the number of facilities available to accommodate them. For an African country to attain an operational UHC strategy, it must first provide the necessary infrastructure to accommodate a section of its population.
African countries can accomplish this by redesigning their primary healthcare system. By doing so, hospitals and healthcare facilities can maintain access to their services during emergencies or any outburst of pandemics.
A decade ago, such a concept would only frustrate governments and economies, but today it is made possible. The fourth Industrial revolution has brought various technology that has further boosted the potential of hospitals.
Blockchain technology can interlink hospital databases and allow swift medical information retrieval regardless of geographic location. Like the strategies used in Rwanda’s Universal Health Coverage scheme, deploying community-based facilities will drastically improve citizens’ access.
Another crucial element to improve is the equipment used within established facilities. The deaths from the COVID Pandemic were a clear sign that most hospitals have poor equipment, and this problem significantly affects government-owned facilities. It is common to find that most public hospitals in Africa share similar issues, such as congestion, poor services and unlicensed personnel. The government can address these issues closely by improving hospital systems and ensuring quality services and equipment.
Also, Read Africa: States should learn from a pandemic and strengthen health supply chains.
Improving healthcare education
Unfortunately, a significant decline in certified care providers plagues African hospitals. Currently, Africa’s Human capital is its most valuable asset, but it needs to improve its educational systems to tap into the vast potential of its youths.
Despite various countries improving their medical equipment, they have limited trained personnel. This attribute showcases one of the economic values of healthcare. If the government can improve its education system and provide opportunities for its local talent, it mitigates a significant amount of its problems.
Today it is customary to hear many youths complaining of a lack of jobs while they lack the facilities to learn such skills. This leads to the development of a knowledge economy which utilizes a country’s human resources for its own. This prevents other countries from benefiting from the brilliance the government would cast away.
Improving the quality of service regardless of demography
The primary goal of Rwanda’s Universal Health Coverage is to ensure that each individual has access to quality medical attention. An African government must address two significant issues before achieving this. They include; corruption and the negative take on insurance.
Corruption is deeply rooted in the hearts f most economies in Africa. In some public hospitals, it does not matter whether you came in first. One’s pocket becomes the mode of communication. Those on the waiting list suffer most from this since most individuals “buy” their way up the list. The pandemic exacerbated the inequity within hospitals.
Those unable to pay for services had to wait despite arriving first. Insurances have a terrible reputation in most African countries. This is why Rwanda’s high health insurance rate is a defeat that some countries desire. A lack of information primarily causes this. Rwanda’s government prioritized ensuring everyone was aware of affordable health insurance.
Other governments must make it a point to establish cheap health insurance that caters to the underpaid worker without compromising on quality. Indeed, to improve the quality of healthcare, you need to ensure that PHC service, affordable insurance and trained personnel are available.
Proper Budgeting
The pandemic’s economic impact made it clear that healthcare was a minority when the government made their annual budget. Despite the positive economic value of healthcare, Rwanda had to allocate substantial funding to build proper facilities and systems.
If a country cannot attain the necessary amount required to establish a UHC scheme, the World Bank offers aid. They have launched programs like the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Program (HEPR). This program has awarded 34 grants worth $177 million as of June 2022. If governments can pull their weight and acquire additional aid, they can fully fund and facilitate improvements in their healthcare programs.
Also, Read Banking on Tanzanian Government Bonds.
These four facts are the essential elements that have led to Rwanda’s Universal Helah Coverage. Rwanda might have focused on some more than others, but it entirely depends on the country’s capabilities. COVID Pandemic proved that poor health facilities could cripple the economic growth of any developed or developing land.
