Where Does the Money Come From?

I would like to chat for a minute about where countries like Rwanda get the money to do things like install Electronic Medical Record systems. Are the governments taking this money from food programs, or from building schools in rural villages? No, not really. The answer was interesting to me, and thus, I think it might be interesting to other western world taxpayers. Ready? It largely comes from us. For example, the three biggest donors of the money for the Rwandan EMR system are the CDC, a Washington, DC-based organization called PEPFAR (which stands for the President’s Emergency Program Funding AIDS Relief (or something like that)), and the Global Fund. Why do they do this? Why isn’t the CDC spending that money on, say, H1N1 prevention here in our own country? I asked a new friend from the World Health Organization for his thoughts, and here’s what he said. Firstly, the CDC and these other guys have long since been made aware that global health figures prominently in the state of American health (and the health of other countries; I’m just using the US as an example). Epidemics – such as swine flu – that don’t start in the US will likely make it across our borders and affect us too. Therefore, it makes sense for the best monitoring to be available in places where epidemics are more likely to start – places where health is poorer in general. Secondly, the AIDS epidemic has taken a toll on the whole world. Period. And it has got to stop. Just because you don’t see someone with AIDS in your backyard doesn’t mean the disease hasn’t indirectly impacted you. Think about how much potential productivity and economic contribution has been destroyed in African nations because of AIDS. Think about how much more global GDP will be someday when Africa is the next China – a new consumer and producer market. This will not happen if AIDS continues to devastate the market. So, they give money to direct relief, as well as to supporting structures that they think can help improve the quality of care overall.

I am not saying one way or another if I agree with this assessment, but I figured I’d throw it out there for you to ponder. So go ahead, ponder.