Director Dominica Social Security (DSS) Janice Jean-Jacques Thomas is of the belief that as a major pillar in the social protection system, social security has an important role to play in the region’s dream to be the first to have Universal Health Coverage for its people.
Jean-Jacque Thomas made the remarks at the start of a one-day seminar at the Fort Young Hotel in the second of a series of seminars being held by the Inter-American Conference in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) on Universal Health Coverage and Social Security.
“Social security is deemed to have a major role to play in the quest to realize universal health for its people since social security systems reduce the negative impact of ill health on contributors, while the well-being of the population lends itself to the strengthening of the social security systems,” she stated. “Thus we believe the collaboration between the Inter-American Conference on social security and PAHO to work together to assist member states in achieving universal health coverage is an honorable goal from which we all expect to benefit.”
She noted that the seminar will provide a forum to explore opportunities for collaboration and networking in the area of health financing among health and social security practitioners.
Meantime speaking via video Director of PAHO, Dr. Carissa Etienne, said member states of the Americas have a dream of universal health coverage for all.
“They have a dream of becoming the first region in the world to achieve universal health coverage,” she stated. “The truth is important challenges continue to exist which must be addressed if we have to achieve our goal of UHC. In our region, despite the social and economic development, 150-million people live in poverty. Half of those live in extreme poverty. And this impacts on the ability of persons to access affordable quality services.”
The goal of universal health coverage is to ensure that all people obtain the health services they need without suffering financial hardship when paying for them, according to Dr. Ettiene. She pointed out in order for this to occur many elements are needed including a strong, efficient, well-run health system, a system for financing health services, access to essential medicines and technologies and a sufficient capacity of well-trained, motivated health workers.
Universal health coverage is a bad idea simply because governments are corrupt and poorly run.
Its a pity the real people who do all thd work never get the recognition, by lazy bosses always in the spotlight. Ebeh look roro jjjt in fings we.
Social security is a legal way to steal workers money, my sister died before her retirement ,she started paying at age 20 her family got zero
Were there any young children left beind to be cared for by other relatives? Are they recieving survivors benifits? If the answers to these questions is no, then who ever has accepted the legal guardianship of the child (children) should have contacted the Social Security office in an effort to talk to someone who handles those kinds of services or cases. If you are refering to adult family members who are capable of working and contributing to to the DSS forget it. It was never intended for that purpose and should never ever be used for that purpose.