More than a billion people worldwide lack access to basic healthcare and education. A 2003 Lancet study reported that 63% of child deaths in the 42 countries that account for 90% of global child mortality could be prevented each year through more effective primary care.
Overburdened healthcare systems seem unable to combat the communicable and poor nutrition-based diseases and the skyrocketing rates of non-communicable and lifestyle diseases.
Access to healthcare starts with prenatal care and runs the continuum of life to helping ensure seniors can age safely. Primary care can address the critical problems of the current and future healthcare situation by managing diseases on both the ends of the spectrum – from under nutrition to obesity.
The shortcomings – and the perceptions – of those shortcomings are evident not only in the public health system that is generally considered substandard, but also in the mostly unregulated and often overpriced private healthcare.
You cannot scale without affordability. The VPS Foundation will provide families – especially those at the bottom of the economic pyramid – access to world-class pediatric healthcare. We will create local infrastructure of facilities to make them widely accessible. We will provide sustainable funding to support innovative programs focused on the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of childhood illness.