Half the World Lacks Access to Essential Health Services — It’s Time for Universal Health Coverage for Everyone, Everywhere
The WHO estimates half the world lacks access to essential health services. Half the world! The most medically underserved groups in the world are the 200 million people who have an intellectual disability (ID), 15 million alone in the United States. These individuals face challenges when accessing healthcare, education, and other rights that many people without disabilities take for granted.
On April 7th, the World Health Organization (WHO) is celebrating its 70th anniversary and World Health Day. The theme this year is “Universal health coverage: everyone, everywhere.”
On this day, like every day, Special Olympics and the Golisano Foundation are working to expand access to inclusive health around the world. Inclusive health is the inclusion of those with ID in mainstream health policies, programs, services, training programs, research, and funding streams.
People with ID die on average 16 years younger than the general population. Even in countries that have made progress towards achieving universal health coverage, people with ID have poorer health outcomes because of underutilization of health care. As a result, people with ID experience dramatically higher rates of preventable disease, chronic pain and suffering, and premature death in every country around the world.
For more than 30 years, the Golisano Foundation has been opening doors to help people with intellectual and developmental disabilities live full and productive lives in their communities. To expand our reach and impact, our partnership with Special Olympics has provided athletes with free health screenings, health education, and links to follow-up care. We also train health professionals to provide care to people with ID in their communities and partner with international organizations, providers, community organizations, businesses, and government agencies to break down barriers to quality health faced by people with ID.
We are making significant progress.
Special Olympics has provided more than 1.9 million free screenings in over 130 countries and trained more than 220,000 health professionals. In 2017, among Special Olympics athletes in the United States, 46% of adults were diagnosed as obese, compared to a global rate of 31%. The obesity rate among Special Olympics youth is 32% compared to 16% globally. Access to health, fitness, and wellness programs has been critical to preventing and reducing obesity rates and associated health problems.
The 15 million people with ID who live in our country deserve the same opportunity as those without ID to get healthcare, work, live with dignity, and be productive members of their communities. Improving access to sports, health, and education for people with intellectual disabilities benefits us all by building a more accepting society and catalyzing inclusion for everyone.
Special Olympics and its partners are making organizations, communities, and national health systems more inclusive of people with ID, and creating momentum towards universal health coverage as a result. The government of India partnered with Special Olympics to provide free dental care across the country for people with ID, and changed dental school curricula to ensure providers understand how to best treat people with ID.
In the United States, mobile vision programs in Hawaii ensure crucial health screenings can be provided directly where people with ID live. Local gyms are partnering with Special Olympics New York to make membership forms more accessible for people with ID. Community cooking classes in Arkansas have been adapted for appropriate literacy levels for people with ID by using visual recipes and simplifying instructions. These are just a few examples of the growing trend towards inclusive health.
The WHO emphasizes that universal health coverage is not just what health services are covered, but how they are funded, managed, and delivered. Universal health coverage is possible only when the most marginalized populations have access to health. People with ID are systematically sidelined from health systems, so by making health inclusive for people with ID, we will accelerate the progress towards truly achieving health for all.
We all can play a role in making health inclusive for people with ID.
Organizations interested in making changes should involve people with ID and their caregivers in the development and implementation of policies, practices, and programming that impacts their ability to access services. Finally, it is important to discuss with these stakeholders how to monitor the impact of the changes, to ensure that they are adequately improving access to quality care.
