Universal health coverage

Universal health coverage

 What is UHC?

UHC entails that everyone has access to the necessary healthcare without facing financial hardship. The complete range of necessary, high-quality health services—from health promotion through prevention, diagnosis, and treatment—as well as palliative care are all included.

These services must be delivered by adequate and skilled health and care personnel who have the right mix of abilities at the institution, outreach, and community levels, are fairly distributed, receive adequate support, and have respectable jobs. UHC strategies ensure that the quality of those services is high enough to improve the health of the individuals who receive them while enabling everyone to access the services that address the major causes of disease and death.

The risk that people will be forced into poverty due to unexpected illness requires them to use up their life savings, sell assets, or borrow reduces when people are protected from the financial repercussions of paying for health services out of their own pockets. This often results in destroying their futures and those of their children.

When the SDGs were adopted in 2015, one of the goals that the world's governments established was to achieve UHC. At the 2019 UNGA High Level Meeting on UHC, nations reaffirmed their dedication to this cause. Countries that make strides toward UHC will also make strides toward other health-related programs and objectives. In addition to enabling learning and earning opportunities for adults and children, good health also aids in eradicating poverty and lays the groundwork for long-term economic growth.

In addition to helping to meet the two additional billion-person targets of helping 1 billion more people be better protected from health emergencies and 1 billion more people experience better health and well-being, WHO contributes to the achievement of the Thirteenth General Programmed of Work's 2025 target that 1 billion more people benefit from UHC. Additionally, it supports the SDGs, Health for All, and WHO's aim of ensuring everyone has the best standard of health possible.

How can countries make progress towards UHC?

Although worldwide the COVID-19 pandemic had an influence on the ability of health systems to offer uninterrupted health services, several countries are now making progress toward UHC. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic's setbacks, all nations can take steps to advance toward UHC more quickly or to preserve their current progress. Governments are having a harder time keeping up with the population's expanding health needs and rising healthcare expenses in nations where health services have historically been available and affordable.

To achieve UHC, all nations' health systems must be strengthened. Strong financial structures are essential. The poor frequently cannot access many of the services they require when they must pay the majority of the cost out of their own pockets, and even the wealthy may face financial difficulties in the event of a severe or protracted sickness. The financial risks associated with disease can be distributed throughout a community by pooling monies from mandatory funding sources (such as government tax income).

The availability, accessibility, and competence of health and care workers to provide high-quality integrated care that is centered on the needs of the patient is essential to improving health service coverage and health outcomes. The COVID-19 epidemic vividly illustrated the value of the health and care workforce as well as the necessity of increasing spending in this sector. By 2030, more than 18 million additional health workers will be required to accomplish the SDGs and UHC targets for the health workforce.

Low- and lower-middle-income nations have the greatest shortages of health professionals. By 2030, the global economy is expected to gain an additional 40 million jobs in the health industry due to the increasing demand for healthcare professionals. Both the public and private sectors need to make investments in the training of healthcare professionals as well as in the creation and employment of funded roles in the healthcare industry.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which has initially affected the health workforce disproportionately, has highlighted the need to protect health and care workers, to prioritize investment in their education and employment, and to leverage partnerships to provide them with decent working conditions.

UHC places an emphasis on how services are funded, managed, and provided in addition to what services are covered. In order to integrate services and center them on the needs of individuals and communities, there must be a fundamental change in how services are delivered. Reorienting health services in order to offer care in the best possible environment, strike the optimal balance between outpatient and inpatient care, and improve care coordination are all part of this.

Individuals will be more empowered to take an active role in their health and health system if health services, including traditional and complementary medicine services, are organized around the holistic needs and expectations of people and communities.

The foundation for attaining UHC globally will be investments in high-quality basic healthcare.

A variety of strategies are needed to achieve UHC. The life course approaches and primary health care approaches are essential. A primary health care strategy focuses on setting up and bolstering health systems so that individuals can quickly and easily obtain services for their health and wellness based on their needs and preferences. PHC consists of three interconnected and complementary elements, including: comprehensive integrated health services that prioritize primary care and public health as central components; multispectral policies and initiatives to address the upstream and wider determinants of health; and engaging and empowering people, families, and communities for increased social engagement and improved self-care and self-reliance in health.

By addressing needs and maximizing possibilities across all stages of life, a life cycle approach improves people's health and allows them to be and do what they rightly value at all ages while always being guided by values that support human rights and gender equality.

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the necessity for nations to swiftly scale up their investments in crucial public health initiatives—those core initiatives that call for coordinated action and can only be supported by governments, lest serious market failures occur. In order to better enable people and families to manage their own health, these include communication, risk communication, and community outreach. They also include information systems, data analysis, and surveillance, laboratory testing capacity, regulation of high-quality products and healthy behaviors, and financial support for public health institutes and programs.

Can UHC be measured?

Yes. Monitoring UHC progress should concentrate on two areas.

the percentage of a population that can access necessary, high-quality medical care (SDG 3.8.1)

the percentage of people who devote a significant portion of their money to health (SDG 3.8.2).

Understanding who is being left behind—where and why—requires measuring equity.

Together with the World Bank, WHO has created a framework to track the development of UHC by keeping an eye on both categories, accounting for both the overall level and the degree to which UHC is equitable, providing service coverage and financial protection to all members of a population, such as the underprivileged or those residing in isolated rural areas.

The degree and equity of coverage in nations are measured by the WHO using metrics for 16 basic health services divided into 4 categories:

Health related to reproduction, mothers, new-born, and kids:

• family planning
• antenatal and delivery care
• full child immunization
• health-seeking behavior for pneumonia.                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

• WHO role 

• In order to advance toward and maintain UHC and to track progress, WHO is helping countries develop their health systems. WHO does not, however, work in isolation. To promote UHC globally, WHO collaborates with a wide range of partners in a variety of contexts and for a variety of goals.                                                                                 The 1948 WHO Constitution, which affirms health as a fundamental human right and pledges to provide everyone with the best possible level of health, serves as the foundation for UHC.