Abstract
Access to health care is a fundamental human right, which places a legal obligation on states to ensure access to quality, timely, acceptable, and affordable health care for its citizens. However, many states struggle to meet this basic right for their citizens given that every year about 100 million people are pushed into poverty, while 150 million people suffer financial catastrophe due to out of pocket payments for health. In Cameroon, studies have shown that about 64% of households cannot access healthcare, because they perceive the cost of care to be high. In 2012, the National Health Accounts (NHA) estimated that about 70% of the Total Health Expenditure (THE) for the country was borne by households. Compared to its peers, the contribution of Cameroonian households is the third highest in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the average is 34%. To remedy this situation, Cameroon has initiated reflections aimed at establishing a universal health coverage (UHC) scheme for its population. This paper therefore aimed at providing a synthesis of Cameroon's progress and assessing if the country is on track to achieving UHC by 2035.
Highlights
In Cameroon, for instance, about 70% of the 156 million USD total domestic health expenditure in 2012 was borne by households. This high contribution by Cameroonian households, which nearly doubles the regional average of 34%, ranks Cameroon third in sub-Saharan Africa, affecting the population’s access to healthcare services in the country. [6]one report suggests that about 64% of households in Cameroon were unable to access healthcare services because they perceived the cost to be high
A major problem facing the supply of health care in Cameroon is the acute shortage of qualified personnel, which is aggravated by geographic distributional inequalities of the national health workforce and the absence of basic infrastructure and equipment in health facilities. [19]this has resulted to a consistent fall in the standards of care in public health facilities throughout the country
Technical Working Group for the universal health coverage (UHC) has made laudable progress in defining the basic elements necessary for political decision-making on the implementation of the UHC
Summary
Access to health care is a fundamental human right, which places a legal obligation on states to ensure access to timely, acceptable, and affordable quality health care for its citizens. [1] Yet, many governments, struggle to meet this basic right for their citizens as estimates suggest that globally about 400 million people lack access to essential health services while 8 million die from treatable medical conditions leading to yearly losses of 6 trillion USD in economic welfare for low- and middle-income countries. [2] Each year, about 100 million people are pushed into poverty while 150 million people suffer financial catastrophe because of out of pocket payments for health services. [3]To reverse this trend, world leaders adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2012. [1] Yet, many governments, struggle to meet this basic right for their citizens as estimates suggest that globally about 400 million people lack access to essential health services while 8 million die from treatable medical conditions leading to yearly losses of 6 trillion USD in economic welfare for low- and middle-income countries. In sub goal 3.8, they committed their governments to attain universal health coverage (UHC) including financial risk protection, access to quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all. In Cameroon, for instance, about 70% of the 156 million USD total domestic health expenditure in 2012 was borne by households. This high contribution by Cameroonian households, which nearly doubles the regional average of 34%, ranks Cameroon third in sub-Saharan Africa, affecting the population’s access to healthcare services in the country.
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