Author: Aminullah, Currently an MScN scholar at Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan. Did his BSN from Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan in 2016. Then he worked for 6 years As a Registered Nurse in different tertiary care hospitals in Pakistan including 3 years at AKU.
Introduction:
Healthcare can be defined as the actions taken to maintain or improve one's physiological, psychological, or emotional well-being by qualified and certified experts (Definition of HEALTH CARE, 2023). Pakistan is a developing country with ample population, and it is frequently criticized for its ineffective healthcare system, which has led to poor health outcomes for many of its residents. In Pakistan, a large number of individuals live in poverty because they cannot afford even the most basic medical care. Due to this, there have been proposals for Pakistan to implement universal health care coverage, which would make healthcare services available to all individuals for free. Everyone should have the opportunity to receive excellent healthcare regardless of their financial situation.
Health care is an elementary human right, thus regardless of socioeconomic condition, everyone should have the opportunity to receive excellent medical treatment. Nobody ought to suffer or pass away as a result of their poverty. Healthcare should be in easy access to everyone regardless of any financial hardship, according to the principle of the right to health for all. (Health Is a Fundamental Human Right, n.d.) The right to healthcare is one of a number of standards for human rights that are universally acknowledged. It is indivisible from other rights like accessibility to food, education, housing, employment, and participation.(Human Rights, n.d.).
The economy would also improve greatly from universal healthcare because it would be free. According to research, increasing economic output and lowering poverty require a strong focus on access to healthcare (Universal Health Coverage, n.d.). When people are healthy, they are more likely to be productive and contribute to the economy. Economic development and good health are directly related and reciprocally influenced by one other, proposing that better health encourages growth by increasing productivity while advancing growth facilitates improved human assets accumulation (Gupta & Mitra, 2004). Furthermore, providing free healthcare can reduce the financial burden on families, as they will no longer have to spend their income on healthcare expenses. This can lead to increased spending money on other necessities, such as education, which have positive long-term effects on the economy. By providing health care insurance, employers decrease projected time away from work in two ways: by lowering the likelihood that employees would become ill or by raising the likelihood that employees will recover from disease. It was predicted that this productivity penalty would be significant (Dizioli & Pinheiro, 2016).
Furthermore, the cost of healthcare in Pakistan is one of the leading causes of poverty in the country. By providing free healthcare services, the government can reduce the burden of poverty and inequality in the country. Health hazards cause total investment, total employment and capital per individual to decline in comparison to an economy without health risks. Based on this finding, it may be concluded that the poor will be able to overcome poverty if there are no health hazards exist or if any necessary health risks are treated for free (Liao et al., 2022). The reduction of poverty, which eventually spurs economic growth, is influenced by improved health on an individual, household, and social level. Health outcomes may be improved, and investing in health systems can also end the cycle of poverty and bad health (L-MLIH_Health-Economic-Growth-and-Development_Atun-and-Kaberuka_4-11-16.Pdf, n.d.).
The expense of offering free healthcare services is substantial, in contrast to the claims made above that everyone in Pakistan will have access to it. A large investment in healthcare infrastructure and medical personnel will be necessary to offer all Pakistanis access to free healthcare. It would be challenging to provide free healthcare services to the people of Pakistan given the numerous difficulties the country is facing, including financial crises, political unrest, and extreme suffering. However, despite the above challenges, studies have shown that investing in healthcare can have a positive impact on the economy, and the benefits of providing free healthcare services may outweigh the costs in the long run (Gupta & Mitra, 2004).
Conclusion
In conclusion, healthcare should be free for all in Pakistan. Everyone has the right to get quality healthcare. Providing free healthcare would also have significant benefits for the economy, including improving productivity and reducing poverty. While some may argue that providing free healthcare to all people is too expensive, and Pakistan is facing many financial challenges, it will further be a burden on its economy but evidence has shown that it can be cost-effective in the long run. Therefore, the government of Pakistan should prioritize providing free healthcare to its citizens as a basic human right. In order to develop a free health care system with quality assurance, Pakistan needs to learn from the experiences of other nations that offer free healthcare to their residents.
References
Definition of HEALTH CARE. (2023, March 23). https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/health+care
Dizioli, A., & Pinheiro, R. (2016). Health insurance as a productive factor. Labour Economics, 40, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2016.03.002
Gupta, I., & Mitra, A. (2004). Economic Growth, Health and Poverty: An Exploratory Study for India. Development Policy Review, 22(2), 193–206. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7679.2004.00245.x
Health is a fundamental human right. (n.d.). Retrieved March 26, 2023, from https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/health-is-a-fundamental-human-right
Human rights. (n.d.). Retrieved March 26, 2023, from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/human-rights-and-health
Liao, P., Zhang, X., & Zhang, W. (2022). Endogenous health risks, poverty traps, and the roles of health insurance in poverty alleviation. Health Economics Review, 12(1), 25. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13561-022-00370-2
L-MLIH_Health-economic-growth-and-development_Atun-and-Kaberuka_4-11-16.pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved March 28, 2023, from https://cdn1.sph.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/1496/2016/10/L-MLIH_Health-economic-growth-and-development_Atun-and-Kaberuka_4-11-16.pdf
Universal Health Coverage. (n.d.). [Text/HTML]. World Bank. Retrieved March 26, 2023, from https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/universalhealthcoverage
World Health Organization. (2010). The world health report: Health systems financing: the path to universal coverage. World Health Organization. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/44371
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