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Do you ever think about whether you can afford a health care service, like seeing a doctor?
If the answer is no, you are probably among the “lucky” minority of people that have access to publicly funded health care.
The vast majority of people around the world – 84 percent or 6.6 billion people – live in countries where access to health care is undermined in part by low public funding.
Sometimes this is because of major constraints like war and natural disasters, but in most cases, governments just don’t prioritize it. Either way, people suffer.
But health is a human right, not luck.
Most governments are not spending enough to ensure health care systems can deliver on this right to health.
Human Rights Watch analyzed the most recent World Health Organization data, including health care spending from 2022 for more than 190 countries around the world.
We found that in 2022, 141 governments spent less than 5 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on health care through public means, a widely accepted international spending benchmark.
This means, most people have little access to even healthcare services considered most “essential” by the United Nations.
In many countries, including some of the world’s poorest, big parts of the population have no choice but to pay for health care costs themselves – or to or not receive care altogether.
If people have to pay for their own health care, they often cannot pay for goods and services essential for the realization of other human rights, like housing, food, and education.
In short: The data indicates there are vast inequalities in access to healthcare, and that it is at least in part the result of policy choices.
These policy choices are not fulfilling obligations under international law. Countries must put as many resources as possible into the right to health.
As global health systems worldwide struggle with the US sudden termination of most foreign aid and assistance, richer governments can and should step up.
Those with more resources and power have a particular responsibility to ensure everyone is able to access quality health care.
This could mean increasing contributions to development aid, of course, but also, most importantly, to change the rules that make it so difficult for some countries to raise public funds for health care.
This could be fixed: countries will be negotiating at the UN over the coming years to increase cooperation on tax and avoid competition that harms the poorest countries. And the right to health of millions.
Restructuring debt or relief combined with global tax cooperation can, and will, make a big difference for public health care.
Essentials, such as health care, should not be expendable for billions of people, but should be equally available to everyone.
