A public health expert, Professor Akin Osibogun says that Nigeria can only make dramatic economic progress only if it makes bold investments in health.
Osibogun, a former chief medical director, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), in his keynote address with the theme “Strategic Options for Strengthening Health Systems” at the Ondo State Health Summit in Akure, while justifying the need for improved investment in health, said lack of bold investment in malaria has slowed economic growth in African countries by 1.3% per year.
He stated that investing in health makes sound economic sense as part of that investment if properly applied would save costs that could be incurred due to illness.
According to him, awareness among policymakers on the role of health in overall development is critical to improved investment in health as a strategy also for poverty alleviation.
According to him, “Economic historians have demonstrated that up to 30% of the GDP per capita growth in Britain between 1780 and 1979 was as a result of improvements in health and nutritional status.
“We also know that sickness absenteeism due to malaria and other endemic diseases have been slowing down African economies. A specific analysis by Jeffrey Sachs showed malaria has slowed economic growth in African countries by 1.3% per year.
“Over 35 years, the GDP for African countries is now 32% lower than it would have been in the absence of malaria. Africa has thus lost about $100 billion to malaria in that period. Malaria-free countries average three times higher GDP per person than infected countries even after controlling for other factors which impact economic well being.
“The estimated investment to control malaria was put at $3 billion. Even if we add another $1billion annually for control sustenance for 35 years, the total investment will be $38 billion which is still far lower than the $100billion lost in 35 years.
“If our control strategies are right, we may never need to make such annual investments and we will be saving a lot of money for African economies. I have no doubt whatsoever that if we are to make dramatic economic progress, we must make bold investments in health.
“What we can negotiate is the mechanism of the investment in terms of how we source the necessary funds – whether payment for health services shall be direct or indirect as I had alluded to in my preamble.”
Professor Osibogun declared that health is a security concern due to the threat diseases and epidemics can pose to human existence, adding, “It can be argued that the social upheavals witnessed in Nigeria late in 2020 were partly fuelled by the social and economic consequences of the pandemic.”
He stated that the Federal Government can ensure that health services make a significant impact on health outcomes if it facilitates availability, accessibility to the needed services and promotes patient safety and fair treatment when in contact with the health system.
He stated that there was the need for a health care financing mechanism that can ensure for Nigerians prompt access to quality health care as a political declaration of free emergency health services without an appropriate budgetary allocation is a guarantee for a deteriorated health service.
Osibogun also canvassed for political intervention in the economics of health due to the limitations of the efficiency of the free market in protecting the poor and the disadvantaged,
According to him, “Governments can still promote the ends of equity by purchasing required health goods and services on behalf of the poor and the underprivileged. Parameters can be established through which governments pay only for services actually provided and utilized by the poor and not pay for poor services or services provided in an unpredictable and unsatisfactory manner.”
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