Queen Maxima mentions our approach in UN speech
- Oct 18, 2013
In her speech during the ‘Post-2015 A New Global Partnership’ dinner in New York on September 23 2013, her Majesty Queen Maxima mentioned Health Insurance Fund’s chairman of the board Kees Storm, PharmAccess and our approach to scaling up affordable health insurance:
‘It is very important to break the known vicious circle. That, because when there is seemingly no demand there is no supply. And because good services are not supplied affordably, people will of course not demand them.
I am happy Kees Storm is here with us today. We were together in Tanzania with PharmAccess, an organization he is involved in. PharmAccess tried to break this cycle. In Tanzania, as the medical services offered were very expensive, people waited until they were extremely sick to go to the doctor. But, because the doctors did not have enough visitors, they couldn’t invest in their own facilities and make their services cheaper and more easily available.
PharmAccess’s idea was to break the vicious circle byproviding health insurance to create a constant demand of health services. And also by giving loans to the medical institutions, so these could invest in the facilities and reduce the cost of delivery. Thus, making health services finally affordable for poor people.’
In her role as UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development, Queen Maxima has shown continuous support for our work. Please click here to read the full speech.