“We are honored to welcome the Director General, Dr Tedros and we are so grateful to the good partnership with WHO through which we are making good progress towards Universal Health Coverage and are prepared to establish a resilient epidemic preparedness and response strategy.” Said Dr Diane Gashumba, Minister of Health.
From the past decade, Rwanda has introduced and implemented the Community Based Health Insurance (CBHI) commonly known as ‘Mutuelle De Santé’and this has improved from 7% to 84% in terms of coverage rate. CBHI focuses mostly on people in the informal sector and aims at providing them with equitable access to quality health care services. The growth of CBHI led to remarkable improvements in key health indicators for example; skilled birth attendants rate rose from 39% in 2000 to 91% in 2015, maternal and child mortality has reduced significantly making Rwanda achieving MDG’s 4 & 5.
In September 2017 during the UN General Assembly side event on Universal Health Coverage, Dr.Tedros highlighted the importance of scaling up Universal Health Coverage.
“Universal Health Coverage improves health, reduces poverty, creates jobs, drives economic growth, promotes gender equality, and protects populations against epidemics,” said The WHO Director. “But the reality is that around the world, at least half of the World’s population lack access to essential health services, and at least 100 million people are pushed into poverty by paying for health care out of their own pockets,” He added.
Dr.Tedros said UHC is achievable owing to the evidence showing that 85% of the costs of meeting the SDG health targets can be met with domestic resources.
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