Universal health coverage and the post-2015 agenda.

726 www.thelancet.com Vol 381 March 2, 2013 Commenting on the UN General Assembly resolution of December, 2012, Jeanette Vega off ers a rationale for universal health coverage to become a unifying central health goal in the post-2015 Millennium Development Goal framework. We concur with her arguments provided universal health coverage becomes a central health goal rather than the central health goal. Should the post-2015 development agenda include only one overarching health goal, we stand for a diff erent priority, expressed in a position paper by the International Epidemiological Associ ation. This priority is based on three key considerations: (1) A health goal should be represented by a meaningful health status outcome; (2) Such a goal should be measurable across countries, lest it remain more a motivational slogan— however valuable in itself—than an endpoint translatable into tangible and robust health indicators; (3) Health care is only one of a multitude of factors aff ecting health. On the basis of these considerations, we propose that life expectancy, assessed at diff erent ages—and, coverage through equity-adjusted measures.