Pakistan’s economic crisis has put cost of health care beyond reach of people. Rising inflation and dwindling foreign exchange reserves are creating a shortage of imported medicines.
Due to economic crisis of country, cost of healthcare facilities in country is becoming more and more out of reach of the people, while due to depreciation of rupee, medicines have also become very expensive.
Financial Times reported that soaring inflation in Pakistan has pushed healthcare costs to unaffordable levels, forcing many families in Pakistan to choose between health care and other necessities.
Nafis Jan, a 50-year-old taxi driver in Islamabad, recently called it the “hardest choice” of his life, whether to pay for his 10-year-old son’s diabetes treatment, a Financial Times story said. Do or continue to send your four children to school.
Faced with a “life-and-death situation,” according to the journal, Nafis Jan decided to pull his children out of their modest-fee school to cover cost of medicine and lab tests. I had to choose to save my son’s life.
Pakistan’s economic crisis is creating a public health crisis, while dwindling foreign currency reserves have led to shortages of imported drugs and medical equipment.
According to report, last year’s devastating floods pushed millions of Pakistanis to starvation and made them more vulnerable to disease.
UNICEF said Pakistan’s economic downturn was “threatening health and well-being of millions of already vulnerable communities”. Pay for health care.
Analysts have warned that the country faces risks of a Sri Lanka-like default. Pakistan’s foreign reserves have fallen to $4.2 billion, which is not enough to cover one month’s imports.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government is locked in talks with the IMF to revive a multibillion-dollar loan program. But the parties could not agree on terms to unlock the latest $1.1 billion tranche.
Pakistan’s central bank last week raised its benchmark interest rate by 100 basis points to 21 percent, the highest level in Asia.
Sharif is also embroiled in a bitter dispute with his rival, Imran Khan, who has taken advantage of Pakistan’s economic woes to campaign for a return to the top job, from which he was ousted a year ago. The Prime Minister’s allies fear that accepting the IMF’s terms will destroy his chances in this year’s elections.