No menu items!

COSTA RICA'S LEADING ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEWSPAPER

HomeNewsCosta RicaCosta Rica shares vision, guiding principles for universal healthcare

Costa Rica shares vision, guiding principles for universal healthcare

Costa Rica shared its vision and guiding principles for universal healthcare at the 72nd World Health Assembly, held this week in Geneva, Switzerland.

Elayne Whyte, Costa Rica’s Ambassador to the United Nations, urged countries to “overcome the administrative and financial perspective of the provision of health services, and to put people in the center.”

She shared Costa Rica’s message that “the health of the population is a responsibility of the State.”

“In Costa Rica, 95% of the population is covered by health insurance,” Whyte said. “Public expenditure on health constitutes close to 19.5% of total government spending; we have a Basic List of Medicines (LOM) that solves the pharmacotherapeutic need of about 97% of the population and our main public health goals are linked to our National Plan of Development and Public Investment, and in this way also, to the compliance with the 2030 Agenda in the country.”

The system is not perfect, and complaints of inefficiency are common, but Whyte argued Costa Rica has a framework that produces health outcomes “comparable or superior to many countries with higher incomes.”

Costa Rica proposed the following guiding principles for other nations at the World Health Assembly, according to a release from the Foreign Ministry.

Inclusion, “not only in the sense of increasing the number of beneficiaries but also the number of services. One can not speak of universality without access to all basic health services: water fit for human consumption, collection and disposal of waste, nutrition and mental health.”

Innovation, “to find new and better ways to finance services, to promote health, to incorporate society into decision-making, to design with new work schemes.”

Self-determination, “to ensure the ways in which countries, but above all its inhabitants, will enforce their rights and find the alternatives that best suit their identity and needs.”

Cooperation, “so that the knowledge acquired can flow freely, as well as gain access to funding sources that allow countries to achieve the goals proposed in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in a comprehensive manner.”

This week, the United Nations awarded Costa Rica’s Social Security System (Caja) a 2019 United Nations Public Service Award for the implementation of its “Unified Digital Health Records” (EDUS) electronic medical records software.

Trending Now

Costa Rica’s Rincón de la Vieja Volcano Experiences Moderate Eruption

Guanacaste residents woke up to activity from Rincón de la Vieja volcano yesterday morning. The volcano produced a moderate phreatic eruption at 6:08 a.m....

Costa Rica OIJ Arrests Human Trafficking Ring Exploiting Minors

The Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ) dismantled a gang dedicated to human trafficking for the sexual exploitation of minors after carrying out 19 simultaneous raids...

Costa Rica President Narrows Legal Abortion to Life-Saving Cases

President Rodrigo Chaves has repealed Costa Rica's therapeutic abortion protocol, a move that fulfills a long-standing promise and tightens rules around the procedure. The...

Costa Rica Targets June 2026 for New High-Security Prison

Costa Rica faces a sharp increase in homicides tied to drug trafficking, putting heavy strain on its prisons. In response, the government has moved...

JetBlue Flash Sale: Fort Lauderdale to Liberia Flights Ends Today

Those looking for a deal on airfare and eyeing a trip between Florida and Costa Rica now have a chance to get one with...

Expat Guide to Bilingual Schools in Guanacaste Costa Rica

When my wife and I moved to Costa Rica we were gloriously young and childless. Needless to say, childhood educational options were absent from...
spot_img
Costa Rica Coffee Maker Chorreador
Costa Rica Coffee Maker Chorreador
Costa Rica Travel Insurance
Costa Rica Rocking Chait
Costa Rica Travel

Latest News from Costa Rica