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Statement by H.E. Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher,
Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations of the Holy
See,
at the High-level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage
21 September 2023
Mr. President,
“Health is not a luxury; it is for all.”[1]
Yet, despite progress in expanding access to quality and affordable healthcare,
it remains out of reach for far too many, particularly in developing countries.
Achieving universal health coverage requires strategies and resources, including
support for health workers, to realize each person’s fundamental right to
quality healthcare,[2]
including the poorest and those living in rural areas.
The effects of poverty, such as hunger and malnutrition, inadequate housing, and
unsafe working conditions, increase vulnerability to disease while making it
harder for the poor to get the necessary care they need. Moreover, it is deeply
troubling that healthcare costs have caused half a billion people to experience
or fall deeper into extreme poverty.[3]
For that reason, ensuring affordable, universal access to quality healthcare
cannot be separated from broader development efforts, particularly social
protection, education, and decent work.
Mr. President,
Faith has inspired many efforts to care for the poor and vulnerable around the
world. In some places, faith-based organizations are the only healthcare
providers. Approximately one quarter of all healthcare facilities worldwide are
Catholic, and were “created precisely to care for those no-one wanted to touch”[4],
often in challenging situations. In light of this, the Holy See’s Dicastery for
Promoting Integral Human Development launched in 2021 an initiative on water,
sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in Catholic healthcare facilities. Projects are
now underway in different parts of the world, and will help to reduce the spread
of infectious disease and end preventable maternal and newborn deaths. [5]
Mr. President,
I wish to underline that faith-based healthcare also witnesses to the
inalienable dignity of the person, which must be at the center of efforts to
achieve universal health coverage, by focusing on healing and accompanying each
person in his or her totality.
In doing so, we cannot ignore the danger of an increasingly consumerist
approach, where doctors act as mere service providers to wealthy clients,
fulfilling and profiting from their individual desires. Such tendencies can
create a certain contempt for the poor, the sick, the unborn, the disabled and
the elderly, forgetting that human beings are fragile, dependent and limited in
their corporeality.
To that end, the Holy See pledges to continue its efforts in promoting
universal health coverage, in particular, “to answer above all to the healthcare
demands of the poorest, the excluded and those, who for economic or cultural
reasons, see that their needs are not met”[6].
Thank you, Mr. President.
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