Robert Yates and Mbololwa Mbikusita-Lewanika encourage Heads of Government to give Universal Health Coverage (UHC) full country-wide support in their response to the Sustainable Development Goals.
On 12 December we will celebrate Universal Health Coverage Day and the third anniversary of a historic, unanimous resolution of the United Nations General Assembly, calling on all countries to plan or pursue the transition of their health systems towards universal coverage. Also, UHC has recently been included as a sub-goal within the health-related sustainable development goal agreed at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit held on 25-27 September 2015.
The importance of UHC
UHC is a simple but powerful concept that the World Health Organization defines as follows: “The goal of universal health coverage is to ensure that all people obtain the health services they need without suffering financial hardship when paying for them” …
*Statistics within article correct at original publication date of CHOGM 2015 Report.
Robert Yates and Mbololwa Mbikusita-Lewanika
Project Director of the UHC Policy Forum and the Health Adviser at the Commonwealth Secretariat
