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Health Care Costs Push A Staggering Number Of People Into Extreme Poverty [npr.org]

 

There's new — and shocking — evidence about the toll that health care costs are taking on the world's most vulnerable. A joint reportpulished in the journal Lancet Global Health this week by the World Bank and the World Health Organization estimates that each year more than 100 million people are pushed into extreme poverty in order to pay for health services — meaning that after covering their health bills, their income amounts to less than $1.90 a day.

Another 800 million people are spending at least 10 percent of their household budget on health care. And 3.5 billion people — accounting for more than half of the world's population — are simply forced to go without most essential services.

The kind of care they are missing out on is life-saving but also often extremely basic, says Tim Evans, senior director of health, nutrition and population at the World Bank Group.

[For more on this story by NURITH AIZENMAN, go to https://www.npr.org/sections/g...into-extreme-poverty]

Photo: Women line up to vaccinate their children in Kitahurira village, Uganda.
Andrew Aitchison/Corbis via Getty Images.

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