New data from the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that many governments worldwide failed to meet public healthcare spending benchmarks amid the Covid-19 crisis, potentially violating their obligations to the human right to health. WHO’s Global Health Expenditure Database for 2021 showed that most countries did not allocate the recommended 5 percent of GDP or 15 percent of their national budget to healthcare through public means, hindering progress towards universal health coverage.
It has been highlighted that the consequences of inadequate healthcare spending, emphasizing that individuals and families bear the brunt when governments neglect investment in healthcare systems. Despite a surge in global healthcare spending during the pandemic, about 80 percent of the world’s population lived in countries that did not meet either spending benchmark, exacerbating disparities in access to quality healthcare services. The findings underscore the urgent need for governments to prioritize healthcare funding to ensure equitable and universal healthcare access for all.