Poverty And Health In Colombia

Poverty and health in Colombia

Talking about poverty, even if it is not an easy issue, it is vital to be able to diagnose the pathologies that arise in our society. This presents certain difficulties, both to understand it and to give solution to these pathologies. Intellectuals, politicians and people of the common almost always have a wrong idea of ​​its meaning, we believe that poverty is the lack of material goods and with this we are only deviating the focus of the true problems. For Manfred Max-Neef, concern about needs and their increase in time, it is not true but these needs are finite and equal at any time. Therefore, a needs classification scheme is proposed. For Max-Neef this proposed system allows the reinterpretation of the concept of poverty such as, ‘any fundamental human need that is not adequately satisfied’. Seeing it in this way, in our country, one of those needs that we see as fundamentally dissatisfied is the protection and more specifically, the precarious situation of our health system.

Our country has gone through very significant social and economic changes in recent years. which leads us to be a region with a high variation in terms of socio-economic development between our population. Since approximately the beginning of the 90s, all Latin American countries have gone through a series of reforms in the health area to increase the equity, coverage and efficiency of the systems, but despite having proven to have positive results, The objectives that had been proposed were not met.

These systems become (and will continue to do so) unsustainable, because they encourage a disease -based system and not health, and for this reason, over time, both the system and resources will continue to be limited. We must understand that the health of a population is the result of the decisions that are made at a political, economic and social level, so health problems must be solved from the political, economic and social, and not only by professionals Of the health.

There must be a greater investment in public health, and also have alternative financing mechanisms that promote prevention, instead of disease -based funds. This can promote health promotion, disease prevention and medical care from basic levels. Health problems such as chronic noncommunicable diseases should be addressed by improving primary health care and promoting healthy lifestyles. In addition, innovative solutions must be explored. Technology, social innovation and interaction between public and private sectors can provide solutions to health services access problems. We must understand that health is a development pillar for a country and our region must improve public health results, or social and economic improvements will not be sustainable.

To guarantee an improvement in public health in a region that faces such a variable scenario in investment in health and socio -economic factors, it should be understood that health results are not based solely on spending, but also on how the resources of according to priorities and strategies. Therefore, identify the challenges to face being the first step.

Since the 90s, the World Health Organization has urged the countries of the region to the Universal Health Coverage (Insurance). However, the increase in coverage has not guaranteed effective access to health systems. Under universal health coverage, each citizen would have access to high quality services that requires. Reality shows us that approximately 30% of the population of Latin America and the Caribbean do not have access to medical care for economic reasons and 21% do not seek attention due to geographical barriers or lack of education.

Throughout the twentieth century, we saw how the region has experienced health problems in many countries with high levels of infectious and acute diseases that exerted pressure on our weak public health systems. Since as a country we have advanced economically and with greater globalization, our lifestyles have changed, now we have a higher life expectancy, but with this comes a greater burden of disease as a result of chronic diseases and noncommunicable diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, cancer, obesity, etc.

As for training and distribution of human resources we do not comply with international indicators, such as the number of doctors / nurses per 10.000 inhabitants, or hospital beds available per 1.000 inhabitants. In addition to the availability of resources, the distribution of these resources must also be taken into account. People are often concentrated in capital cities or in some geographical areas, leaving groups outside these careless areas. The problem is not only the lack of resources, but also the poor distribution.

Even today, we find in our country inequalities in health, our current system is characterized by a high level of inequality and inequality, with a significant percentage of the population at the base of the pyramid. Which means that many sectors of the population are at greater risk, since health problems are often influenced by social factors such as education, sociocultural level, income and ethnicity. For example, mortality rates (maternal, child, seniors) are worse in indigenous and rural populations compared to urban and high -income sectors. Changes in disease patterns and the increase in population aging increase the cost of medical care. Currently, health systems finance their services based on the disease, which means that resources have to increase as more people get sick.