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Commonwealth Health Partnerships 2015

Germany and the UK were the first countries to introduce nationwide health insurance schemes structural conditions that hamper the well-being of the aged. The growth of the elderly population in the coming decades will bring with it unprecedented burdens of morbidity and mortality. Living with a spouse has a significant and independent effect on health care utilisation. Elderly people who live alone as residents of old-age homes are the worst affected subgroup with very low health care utilisation. Certainly, old-age homes not only require economic support but should be provided or linked with appropriate health facilities, and a shift from old-age homes to community settings is desirable to promote health care utilisation and elderly well-being. Perhaps family members should be offered incentives (tax benefits or direct payments) for assisting elderly relatives and health care utilisation could be an important conditionality of such policies. In general, elderly people from the poorest quintile are the most disadvantaged and the probability of health care utilisation could increase significantly if they receive financial support or (fully) subsidised health care. Issues of health and health care utilisation predominate the discourse on elderly well-being. The issue assumes policy relevance, particularly in countries with weak institutional support and limited fiscal scope for elderly well-being. Governments should consider paying for a universal pension in order to include all elderly under a social security network. Policies for the elderly must also be gender sensitive since problems faced by old women are more critical compared to those faced by U n i v e r s a l h e a l t h c o v e r a g e a n d t h e e l d e r l y men due to low literacy rates, customary ownership of property by men and very few women having been in the labour force during their prime age; and also because women outlive men in the same cohort. For healthy ageing, it may be useful to consider universal pensions and universal insurance for the elderly. UHC and NCDs The world is going through epidemiological transition, experiencing the rising prominence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in its health burden. Evidence-based research should be used to decide how this could be covered under UHC and prepare for costeffective treatment. Governments should focus on building awareness and educating people about the benefits of maintaining a hygienic and healthy lifestyle that contributes enormously in preventing diseases and reduces costs of curative care. In a country where large numbers of people are uneducated, it is critical to raise awareness of their entitlement to health care and other public services, and also the benefits of various preventive health care measures. Most of the NCDs are not curable through simple interventions and require long-term care and access to diagnostic and monitoring facilities. These necessitate more laboratory tests and specially trained doctors. So, we have little choice but to invest in the training of more doctors and strengthening public health delivery system. Commonwealth Health Partnerships 2015 109 Fotoluminate LLC / Shutterstock.com


Commonwealth Health Partnerships 2015
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