Santiago, Chile, – By participating in the XXXVI Fiscal Policy Seminar, which is being held today in Chile, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) called on the countries of the region to increase spending on primary care.
James Fitzgerald, director of systems and services at PAHO, estimated that investment in this sector is the most effective in terms of results, because up to 80 percent of health problems can be solved there.
A greater fiscal priority, aimed at the first level of care in low-developed countries, should produce important indicators, he said. He explained that there are many diseases that can be treated such as respiratory, kidney, and vascular infections and thereby avoid the costs of hospitalizations.
Fitzgerald spoke at the seminar on tax policy organized by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), in which ministers of Treasury and Finance from 13 countries, experts from international organizations, civil society and academia participated.
The event was inaugurated on Monday by the executive secretary of ECLAC, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, who warned that the region is experiencing a difficult outlook due to low economic growth and pressure to contain public spending and pay the rise in interest rates. the external debt.
When three, four and even five percent of the Gross Domestic Product is allocated to this service, the availability of resources for health, education, infrastructure, social policies and other key areas is reduced, he said.
ECLAC called for increasing the availability of funds by increasing tax collection and its progressivity to reduce social inequalities.
