When she spoke on the regular Friday -pressed briefing in Geneva for Humanitarian Agencies, she warned that as richer nations make deep expenses, both international help and national health systems face serious disturbance.
Dr. Chalkidou highlighted the recent decisions of the United States, several European governments and EU bodies to freeze or scale down health support.
Who predicts indicates that global health investments are Probably falls by up to 40 percent this year, down $ 10 billion from just over $ 25 billion in 2023. The estimated $ 15 billion spent on health support would bring the number down to the lowest level in a decade.
Effects in developing countries
This shortage of funding creates an emergency in health financing in many developing countries in Africa south of the Sahara-which depends on external help to finance their health systems.
In several countries, US-funded health programs were the primary source of external help, Accounting for as much as 30 percent of current healthcare costs in countries such as Malawi and about 25 percent in Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
Since 2006, external assistance per Low -income countries consistently exceeded domestic health expenses.
Many Under-Sahara nations face a sky-high debt burdens-some expenses twice as much on debt service as at the health of the health makes the redistribution of resources difficult.
The consequences are serious: Dr. Chalkidou referred to a study of who shows that countries today report disruptions in health care “not seen since the top of Covid-19”.
Solutions
To tackle this crisis, calling on countries to reduce aid dependence, increase revenue through improved taxation-inclusive health taxes on products such as tobacco and alcohol and work with multilateral banks to secure loans with low interest rates to cost-effective health investments.
There are also planning to attend the upcoming international conference on financing for development in Seville, where global leaders are expected to tackle the health financing crisis and hopefully enter into new obligations.
