High cost of medicare pushes 100m people globally into poverty-WB

The World Bank says about 100 million people have been pushed into poverty due to high cost of obtaining health services.
The findings, released Tracking Universal Health Coverage: 2017 Global Monitoring Report, by the World Bank and the World Health Organization, these expenses are enough to push them into extreme poverty, forcing them to survive on just $1.90.
This is even as it added that each year large numbers of households are being pushed into poverty because they must pay for health care out of their own pockets.
Currently, 800 million people spend at least 10 percent of their household budgets on health expenses for themselves, a sick child or other family member.
“It is completely unacceptable that half the world still lacks coverage for the most essential health services. And it is unnecessary. A solution exists: universal health coverage (UHC) allows everyone to obtain the health services they need, when and where they need them, without facing financial hardship.” Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
“The report makes clear that if we are serious – not just about better health outcomes, but also about ending poverty – we must urgently scale up our efforts on universal health coverage,” said World Bank Group President Dr. Jim Yong Kim. “Investments in health, and more generally investments in people, are critical to build human capital and enable sustainable and inclusive economic growth. But the system is broken: we need a fundamental shift in the way we mobilize resources for health and human capital, especially at the country level. We are working on many fronts to help countries spend more and more effectively on people, and increase their progress towards universal health coverage.”
Despite the gloom pictured, the report shows that the 21stcentury has seen an increase in the number of people that are able to obtain some key health services, such as immunization and family planning, as well as antiretroviral treatment for HIV and insecticide-treated bed nets to prevent malaria. In addition, fewer people are now being tipped into extreme poverty than at the turn of the century.
However, there are wide gaps in the availability of services in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia.
In other regions, basic health care services such as family planning and infant immunization are becoming more available, but lack of financial protection means increasing financial distress for families as they pay for these services out of their own pockets.