GOVERNMENT RISKS BEING SUED OVER HIGH COVID TREATMENT BILLS

Vexed Ugandans are contemplating dragging government to court over failure to regulate the high medical bills being charged by private health facilities for Covid-19 treatment.

A group of young city lawyers have gathered information about public health act of Uganda with an intention of suing the government. According to the learned friends, the goal of public health is to improve health outcomes for populations through the achievement of the objectives of preventing disease and the health consequences of environmental hazards and natural or man-made disasters; promoting behaviors that reduce the risk of communicable and non-communicable diseases etc.

Surprisingly, the lawyers  say, ” this is amiss! As the country battles the second wave of Covid-19, several private hospitals around Kampala are charging between Shs3m and Shs5m per day for patients needing oxygen in the intensive care and high dependency units. Likewise, the same hospitals are charging between Shs1m and Shs2.5m for moderate cases per day.

On March 27, 2020, Uganda registered the first case of COVID-19 (coronavirus) and had 39,600 cases and 320 deaths by January 31, 2021.

The Government took fast action to minimize the spread of the virus, imposing restrictions on travel and closing Entebbe International Airport and all borders for passenger travel. President Yoweri Museveni also promoted better hygiene through hand washing and health safety habits, instituted social distancing measures, and prohibited public gatherings and shut down schools. Employees were asked to work from home, except for those providing essential services.

While the number of COVID-19 cases has increased at a relatively slow pace, the spillover of the global recession and domestic containment measures have had a severe impact on livelihoods and the economy.

The pandemic has slowed economic activity. Real gross domestic product (GDP) growth fell to 2.9% in FY20, from 6.8% in FY19 as major trade partners faced a recession, travel restrictions choked the tourism industry, and the sharp decline in world oil prices stifled foreign direct investment inflows.

Furthermore, the recession abroad and loss of employment reduced remittance inflows. Meanwhile, the partial closure of businesses and industries in the country disproportionally hit low- and middle-income earners and raised the vulnerability of the poor. The pandemic pushed  between 1.1 to 3.2 million people into poverty, in addition to the latest official estimate of 8.7 million. The presence of 1.4 million refugees in Uganda—Africa’s largest hosting country and third largest in the world—also added to the enormous pressure of delivering essential services during this crisis period.

The World Bank provided $300 million in budget support to help mitigate the economic impact of the pandemic and protect the poor and vulnerable population.

The budget support is part of a larger package of support to Uganda’s National COVID-19 pandemic response and was coordinated with other interventions in the country, including in health, water and sanitation, agriculture, environment, private sector development and job creation.

The project  complemented and leveraged support from other development partners including a Rapid Credit Facility of $490 million from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) delivered in May 2020 to strengthen the foreign exchange reserves position and finance the national budget.