Health is Wealth - Get Health Insurance Now

People value their health more than anything else in the world. It is indeed true that health is wealth. The money that we own may come and go. When it comes to our bodies, permanent damage can never be repaired. This is why no matter how young we are, we need to get individual health insurance. It is the only way that we can guarantee our health security even as we grow older.Life is very tricky because we can never know what may happen to us in the future. 

Especially when it comes to our health, we need to make sure that we are as healthy as we should be. The insurance that we have is the only way that we can be secure of our future. Should there be unexpected health complications that may arise, it is always best if we are ready to face these things. This is why health insurance is a necessity for the people these days.

Health expenses can seriously cost us a lot of money. A doctor's fee may already be very expensive. Besides from this, the hospital bill is one expense that is really expensive. Adding to these, the prices for medicine can really be costly. In times like these, we cannot afford to get sick. Right before we know it, we have to spend a really hug amount of money just to save our health.

There are a lot of advantages of getting health insurance. Basically, this is a necessity in anyone's life because it shoulders all the costs mentioned. Hospital bills, medicine and even medicare supplements are covered by the insurance. There is really nothing that you should worry about when you have this in your life. People have found it very beneficial for them to own one as they are already growing older.

Especially when we grow old, we become more susceptible to diseases and health complications. This is when you will really need to have one in your life. Your health insurance will surely be a reliable way to help you pay for these things.

Call your agent now and get an individual health insurance. Do not delay this because you will never know when you will need. Always be prepared for the things that will come in your life. Do not think twice about getting your insurance. You will never regret getting one for the sake of your health. Stay healthy and enjoy a wonderful life.

Health is a human right. When people are not able to access healthcare, especially for reasons of cost, their human rights are denied. For the wider fight for rights, justice and sustainable development, policymakers’ actions must be informed by this linkage.

Universal health coverage (UHC) is built on principles of equity and fairness, with health services allocated according to people’s needs, and the health system financed according to people’s ability to pay. As UN secretary-general, I was proud to launch sustainable development goals (SDGs) in 2015 as a roadmap to a better planet. All world leaders committed to delivering UHC, and they now have 12 years to deliver on their promise.

As a young man growing up in South Korea, I witnessed our transition to UHC, when in 1977 President Park Chung-hee launched nationwide health reforms that meant that everyone could access life-saving healthcare.

This process is now occurring across the world at all income levels, as governments realise that to reach UHC, private voluntary health financing needs to be replaced with compulsory public financing.

The only wealthy country yet to make this transition is ironically the world’s biggest economy, the US. Despite spending 17% of its GDP on health, 30 million Americans are without health insurance, while many more are under-insured and don’t use the services they need because of high co-payments.

When I lived in the US, I was frequently amazed at how expensive health services were, and how unfair it was that the services my family and I used weren’t available for everyone. Sadly, the present US administration’s determination to derail President Obama’s Affordable Care Act is only going to make this situation worse. This will take the US further from the global UHC goal.

However, at a state level, there seems to be an appetite to move more quickly towards UHC in the US. There is a real chance for progressive states to launch publicly financed health systems that might catalyse similar reforms nationwide. Ultimately, I believe they will.

Many middle-income countries that historically had inequitable, privately financed systems now also have the financial resources to switch to a publicly financed system. What is required to catalyse this change is genuine political will, like we saw in South Korea in 1977.

President Jokowi of Indonesia is good example of a leader committed to UHC, who is using savings from cutting fuel subsidies and increasing tobacco taxes to finance UHC. India is another country on the verge of massive health reforms. After decades of underfunding, it is commendable that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has committed his government to more than double public health spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2025.

However, there are concerns over the fact that the main emphasis seems to be insuring people against expensive in-patient tertiary hospital care rather than investing in more cost-effective primary healthcare services (PHCs). I saw PHCs working very well when I visited Delhi this September with Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland. People there are returning to the public sector to access free services in the state government’s impressive mohalla (neighbourhood) clinics. This is a tried-andtested strategy to improve access for the poor that has brought UHC to China, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

All countries on the path to UHC face acrossroad: one path leads to a US-style, privately financed fragmented health system — where the rich have unlimited choice of expensive services, but the poor fail to access care or suffer bankruptcy if they do. The other is the path increasingly being taken in the rest of the world, where even in highly capitalist economies everyone gets access to care because the State makes the rich pay for the poor.

Countries should take the second path. It is the only navigable route to health for all, and for just, stable and prosperous societies.