Paying with their Lives. The cost of illness for children in Africa

The lives of hundreds of thousands of children in Africa could be saved each year by abolishing fees for healthcare. The fees put basic healthcare treatment out of reach of poor people or force them into debt. For millions of people in countries in Africa, healthcare fees have failed to do the job they were intended to do. African governments have been encouraged by donors such as the World Bank to introduce fees for healthcare and it was hoped that charging fees would both help pay for health services and improve access to healthcare. In this report Save the Children UK is calling for health fee abolition. This is an important step to build or rebuild collapsed health systems in order to ensure all children and their families in Africa have access to free essential healthcare.