The immediate past governor of Ondo State, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, has declared that political will and public financing are key to attainment of Universal Health Coverage, UHC, in Nigeria and the developed world. Tracing his exploits as governor in the health sector to his conviction that maternal and perinatal deaths could in most cases be prevented if the society paid premium attention to delivering affordable health care, he observed that public finance must be deployed to the pursuit of coverage so as to reap associated health, economic and political benefits. “Let me make it clear that I am a firm believer in Universal Health Coverage (UHC) – everybody receiving the health that he needs (not what he can afford) without catastrophic spending. “For me, it is a moral, socio-economic and political imperative.
This is in line with World Health Organisation (WHO) constitution of 1948 which spells out clearly that “the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of human being.” “The point that needs to be made repeatedly is that himself. What an eloquent case for public funding of maternal healthcare.” Mimiko, who refered to different scalable interventions and developments of his administration as governor of Ondo State, women, children and adolescents must be given priority in universal health coverage as they are the most vulnerable of the population.
He added that the attainment of the Health target of the Sustainable Developments Goals “is inextricably tied to universal health coverage.” Tracing his exploits as governor in the health sector to his conviction that maternal and perinatal deaths could in most cases be prevented if the society paid premium attention to delivering affordable health care. “Working with other stakeholders, put in place processes that have to a large extent proved that even in resources challenged settings like ours we can post reasonable outcomes in maternal and perinatal death reduction.”
