The COVID-19 pandemic is only adding to a financial health care burden on the world’s poorest that existed prior to the crisis.

More than half a billion people were either pushed or pushed further into extreme poverty around the world before the pandemic due to out-of-pocket health care costs, according to two new reports the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank released on Sunday.

The COVID-19 pandemic will likely exacerbate the situation and is expected to stop two decades of global progress toward achieving universal health coverage.

The two reports were launched on Universal Health Coverage Day to shine a light on the pandemic’s impact on access and affordability of health care. The WHO and the World Bank include warnings and guidelines to assist countries in recovering from the pandemic and protecting their populations.

Read the full article about high healthcare costs by Leah Rodriguez at Global Citizen.