Chapter 15 - Universal Health Coverage and Beyond

Summary

Health systems around the world share common goals, but attainment is widely variable. Universal Health Coverage (UHC) has emerged as a consolidated response to bridge the gap between what a health system should be doing and what it does. Drawing from global best evidence, this chapter explores how countries in practice could translate and achieve UHC, focusing on two central questions: What services and policies should be covered and be implemented; and second, how can health financing meet the UHC requirements? These include both health sector as well as intersectoral policies and interventions prioritized in the DCP3 package. The health sector interventions are distributed across four clusters – age-related, non-communicable disease and injury, Infectious diseases, and health services. The intersectoral interventions and policies fall under four domains – fiscal, regulatory, information and education, and built environment. The second question looks at the key challenges of country-level implementation capacity. It concludes by drawing out generalizable themes of country responses to the UHC Sustainable Development Goal targets to inform the way forward.