Nearly 15% of the population in Albania faces serious financial difficulties in covering healthcare services. The alarm comes from a new global report by the World Bank and the World Health Organization, which highlights that the cost of medicines is the main source of this economic burden.
According to the report, in three-quarters of countries with available data, medicines account for at least 55% of household health expenditure. The situation is even more dire for people living in poverty, who spend an average of 60% of their health budget on medicines alone, reducing their ability to meet other basic needs.
The report warns that, without accelerating reforms and greater financial support, universal health coverage without unaffordable costs will remain a distant goal. The global health coverage index is expected to reach only 74 out of 100 points by 2030, leaving 1 in 4 people in the world still in financial difficulty at the end of the Sustainable Development Goals period.
