Community-Based Health Insurance Can Contribute to Improvement of Environmental Health among Low-Income Communities in Uganda: A Review of Literature
Abstract:
Poor environmental
health accounts for the vast majority of major disease etiologies in developing
countries, like Uganda, with the poor bearing the highest burden. Although Uganda
has a well-structured health care system, linking the community to the higher-level
health services, the government has not given environmental health, an important
aspect of preventive healthcare, the priority it deserves. Consequently, low-income
settlements have become breeding grounds for disease, making the search for solutions
to improve environmental health in such communities an utmost urgency. Community-based
health insurance is much debated as a way of tackling the challenge of providing
access to health care for the poor in developing countries, like Uganda, without
worsening their economic situation. This is especially important at this time when
the country is faced with high preventable disease burden, shrinking budgetary support
to the public health services, and an unacceptably low quality of these services.
This article provides an analytical framework for the health care systems in Uganda
to integrate environmental health into community-based health insurance. The study
was a qualitative systematic review of various books, peer reviewed journal articles,
websites and relevant literature related to concepts. The author concludes that
community-based health insurance could be a high impact, cost-effective and sustainable
solution for improving environmental health, an important aspect of preventive healthcare,
in low-income communities in Uganda.
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