December 12 is Universal Health Coverage (UHC) day, a day to rally around bringing UHC to all. While world leaders recently recommitted to achieving UHC by 2030 at the September United Nations High-Level Meeting on UHC, the world is not on track to achieving that goal.
UHC means that every person can get the health care that they need, where and when they need it, without financial hardship. This approach recognizes that health is a human right and that improving health for everyone is co-aligned and mutually beneficial with other global goals, such as reducing poverty, achieving gender equality, and building resilience to climate change.
Progress in UHC is tracked using two indicators: the UHC Service Coverage Index (SCI)—a composite indicator that summarizes coverage for essential health services in four sub-categories—and out-of-pocket health spending. Service coverage has improved from an SCI score of 45 out of 100 in 2000 to a score of 68 out of 100 in 2021, mainly due to progress in the infectious disease sub-category. However, gains have stalled since 2015, and there has been no change in the global SCI since 2019. That leaves approximately 4.5 billion people, more than half of the world’s population, not fully covered for essential health services. On the financial side, catastrophic health spending (defined as spending more than 10 percent of household budget on health expenditures) continuously increased in the period from 2000 to 2019. In 2000, about 9.6 percent of the global population incurred catastrophic out-of-pocket health spending; by 2019, that number increased to 13.5 percent, and estimates predict that financial hardship worsened even further during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic revealed deep disparities between those who had the physical and financial means to access care and those who didn’t. Investing in UHC is essential to reducing those health inequities. To get back on track and deliver on the promise to achieve UHC by 2030, UHC day calls on global leaders to invest in universal health coverage, strengthen health systems, expand primary care, work across sectors and communities, and promote innovation. To learn more about UHC, find more resources in our online repository or explore the selected resources below.
Selected Resources
Sustainable Development Goal 3 is “to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.” One of the core targets is SDG 3.8 Universal Health Coverage (UHC). Universal health coverage refers to ensuring all people everywhere have quality essential healthcare services when and where they need them without incurring financial hardship. These short videos review the metrics used to assess progress on both dimensions - "service coverage" and "financial protection."
Collection link: https://vimeopro.com/gheli/uhc-and-sdg-measurement-video-series
- Tracking Universal Health Coverage: 2023 Global Monitoring Report, World Health Organization, World Bank Group 2023
- State of UHC Commitment: Key Findings, UHC2030 2023
- Global Monitoring Report on Financial Protection in Health 2021, World Health Organization, World Bank Group 2021
- Lancet Commission on Synergies Between Universal Health Coverage, Health Security, and Health Promotion, The Lancet 2023
- Universal Health Coverage Data Portal, Global Health Observatory