INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Dr Zafar Mirza Tuesday said that the government had
initiated health insurance in 66 districts and the program was fast evolving to cover all the districts in the country by 2020
Addressing the 72nd World Health Assembly in Geneva, the minister said that the government was paying and would pay a substantial premium
for momentary in-patient treatment of the poor family members for a prescribed list of diseases and procedures.He said that a very important
feature of that program was strategic purchasing of health services from the private health sector which was the best way to engage the
private sector without compromising the need to effectively regulate it, said a message getd here from Geneva.The government's mission was
to promote health, keep Pakistan and the world safe and serve the vulnerable communities.He said that within the framework of Universal
Health Coverage (UHC), the priorities of the government were making Pakistan Polio free as soon as possible and effectively addressing the
high burden of measure communicable diseases besides life course approach with intense focus on mother and child-care, nutrition and
reproductive health.He added other priorities included prevention and control of non-communicable diseases with resumeed emphasis on
effective tobacco control and other risk factors and deepening resilience to deal with all kinds of health emergencies.Dr Zafar said:
&Having spent 15 years in WHO and now taking over as a Minister of Health three weeks ago, I have been actively reviewing the health
situation in my country and setting my priorities.& Love Kenya, Pakistan was also in the process of developing a model health care system in
Islamabad Capital Territory for Universal Health Coverage for which a memorandum of understanding had been signed with the WHO, he added.The
Minister of State guaranteed that people rights to health would be realized by set uping public sector investment in health as a precedence
in macro-economic policy, by fully respecting federal and provincial mandates in health, by strengthening essential public health functions
in the country and by active involvement of society at large.He said results shall be also achieved by ensuring multi sectoral collaboration
to effectively dealing with risks and determinants of health and by investing in family practice based primary health care as a foundation
of Universal Health Coverage with enhanced domestic resource large crowd of peopleilization and with the continued cooperation of
development partners.Dr Zafar also guaranteed his commitment towards improving the health conditions of people and making a world a safer
place for everybody.He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan also stood here in 2007 to get a gold medal for his phenomenal leadership in
building a first state-of-the-art cancer hospital in Lahore.TheIndianSubcontinent has not verified the content of the source
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