Government will start providing freed health care services to pregnant adolescents, Dr Jesca Nsungwa from Ministry of Health has revealed.
Dr Nsungwa made the remarks on behalf of Health Minister, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng Wednesday morning while opening the 3rd Public Health Youth Symposium at Golf Course Hotel.
She highlighted the need to identify more marginalized people on the basis of financial hardships, age groups including young people, geographical locations aimed at ensuring access to quality health and less costly services.
Dr Nsungwa said that Ministry of Health has interventions to include adolescents in the voucher system for pregnant women being implemented at village level to enable young people access free health services in the country.
“Through the result financing mechanism, the Ministry of Health is also targeting young people as an intervention to include adolescents into the voucher pregnancy system to acquire tickets to access free health care services. The tickets are provided by village health workers at a one off payment of Shs4,000 to access all services including access to ultra sound scans, treatment, among others,” Dr Nsungwa said.
In her key note address, Diana Nambatya from Living Goods said that if Uganda is to attain Universal Health Coverage, there should be achievements in promotion, treatment and access to health without financial hardships.
Nambatya urged stakeholders to invest in reducing out of pocket spending by the public especially health system strengthening to ensure that health is a human right
Statistics from Ministry of Health indicate that teenage pregnancy in Uganda is now at 25%. Uganda has attained 40% out of the 90% of the Universal Health Coverage, lifespan is between 50-60 years, Ugandans out of pocket spending is at 44% away from the targeted 20%, 1% access health insurance and the population growth is at 3% per annum.
By Drake Nyamugabwa
