The Importance of Information and Communication Technologies in Establishing Healthcare Services with a Universal Coverage

Universalism In Healthcare Services

The most important issue discussed in the field of healthcare services is whether it is possible to develop a system from which every person is able to benefit. Especially, in many of the developing countries, which do not have an established healthcare system, a significant rate of the population cannot reach the healthcare services or they have to pay for the use of healthcare services due to not having efficient social security. This situation causes the poor and disadvantaged people to be deprived of the healthcare services and also harms public consensus.

The main equity principle for the use of healthcare services is to enable all the citizens to access the healthcare services equally through the existent health institutes (public and private) of the country (NERA, 2009, p. 8). The concept of health is of equal importance for all people. The fact that people are poor or rich and they live in rural or urban area does not create a difference in their needs of health services. However, especially in the developing countries people living in urban areas with a high financial ability benefit from healthcare services much further compared to people living in the rural areas. People living in urban areas also know the procedure to reach the healthcare services better and so they can easily reach both public and private healthcare services. In fact, low cost investments on basic healthcare services made by governments can increase the general healthcare conditions and healthcare development of the country. However, especially in the developing countries, it has been seen that already limited health funds are used mostly for expensive technologies and urban areas (Akin &Ferranti, 1988, p.2).