World Health Day is celebrated each year on 7th April to commemorate the founding of the World Health Organization (WHO), and has been celebrated each year since 1950. As in 2018, the theme for World Health Day 2019 is Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
Health is a human right; it’s time for health for all.
We know universal health coverage is possible, let’s make it happen!
Universal health coverage means that all people have access to the quality health services they need, when and where they need them, without financial hardship.
- At least half of the people in the world do not receive the health services they need.
- About 100 million people are pushed into extreme poverty each year because of out-of-pocket spending on health.
- Over 800 million people (nearly 12 percent of the world’s population) spend at least 10 percent of their household budgets for health care costs.
- The growing demand for health workers is projected to add around 40 million health jobs in the global economy by 2030.
- In the Republic of North Macedonia according to the ESE NGO, 35% of the population spends money from their own pockets.
This may be since World Health Day 2019 falls midway between the Global Conference on Primary Health Care held in Astana, Kazakhstan in October 2018 and the High-level Meeting on universal health coverage to be held at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2019.
