When President Yoweri Museveni was launching the first track Initiative on HIV & AIDS earlier this year, he underscored the role of the Health Sector. However, well as the Health sector was amongst the most vital, its budget allocation remained less than the required vote. Health was given 1.8 Trillion shillings in the 2017/2018 budget which was only 7% of the budget instead of 15% as agreed by African Leaders at the 2001 Abuja AU Summit. The money, if broken down came to about 5,000 shillings allocated to an individual per day.

However, according Prof. Freddie Ssengoba of Makerere School of Public Health, there were some tremendous steps taken towards Universal Healthcare. “Now, we are more worried about people getting the medicines and swallowing them, in immunization also, we have made tremendous progress; diseases like Measles and others that used to kill a lot of our children have really reduced markedly. So there is some progress in some areas.” Said, Prof. Freddie Ssengoba.

Prof. Ssengoba said that it was not all that the government had to offer. “Actually, the goal is about maintaining health and well-being; meaning that we really need to start spending more money keeping you and me and all Ugandans very healthy, happy and really not sick.” Said, Prof. Freddie Ssengoba. Universal Health coverage comprised of four tenets which included managing the burden of financial healthcare, increasing needed services of good quality, expanding the populations reached by services, and building systems to support quality services. “Investments in other areas, for example water, can bring us a lot health benefits and can keep many people healthy, investing in road safety; recently has demonstrated that putting money into the Police...” Said, Prof. Freddie Ssengoba.