The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released its most recent Global Health Expenditure Report, revealing a concerning trend: governments worldwide are deprioritising health spending.  

This shift comes after a surge in health investments during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The report, titled “Global Spending on Health: Emerging from the Pandemic,” highlighted that average per capita government spending on health fell in 2022 from 2021 across all income groups. This is despite 4.5 billion people globally lacking access to basic health services, while a further 2 billion face financial hardship due to the cost of healthcare. 

The report noted that, even in high-income countries, out-of-pocket payments led to an increase in financial hardship and unmet health needs, particularly among the poorest households. In over a third of these countries, more than 20% of total health spending is paid out-of-pocket. 

This decline poses significant challenges to achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC), a key goal of the WHO aimed at ensuring everyone can access necessary health services without financial hardship. 

“While access to health services has been improving globally, using those services is driving more and more people into financial hardship or poverty,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted. 

 “Health for all means everyone can access the health services they need, without financial hardship.”  

 In response to the findings, the WHO has rebuffed its calls for global leaders to prioritise access to healthcare and eliminate impoverishment due to health-related expenses by 2030.