5 billion people will miss basic healthcare as countries hold back investments, says WHO

• Five billion people won't receive healthcare in the next 11 years, because most of the countries are underinvesting in primary healthcare.
  
• Countries "must invest at least 1% more of GDP on primary health care" to bridge the gap.
  
• Increasing expenditure will increase life expectancy by 3.7 by 2030.

Thanks to penny-pinching countries that are holding back investment in primary healthcare,5 billion people around the world will not receive basic health services in 11 years. This is according to the World Health Organisation.

If governments loosen their purse strings a tad and increase investments by even a proportion, it can save 60 million lives in low and middle-income countries.

It recommends that further added, countries "must invest at least 1% more of GDP on primary health care" to bridge the gap.

Increasing investments will increase life expectancy by 3.7 years by 2030 and contain personal expenses by people.

Globally, $7.5 trillion is spent on primary healthcare but it barely covers half the world's population. And, nearly 925 million people have to shed 10% of their household income on healthcare.

“It is quite shocking to see the increasing number of people who are at risk of poverty due to health spending,” said Francesca Colombo, Head (Health Division), Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

See also:

Medical errors take five lives every minute and cost $40 billion annually: WHO