The present Millennium Development Goals are set to expire in 2015 and their next iteration is now being discussed within the international community. With regards to health, the World Health Organization proposes universal health coverage as a 'single overarching health goal' for the next iteration of the Millennium Development Goals.The present Millennium Development Goals have been criticise...

In responses to Norheim’s editorial, this commentary offers reflections from Thailand, how the five unacceptable trade-offs were applied to the universal health coverage (UHC) reforms between 1975 and 2002 when the whole 64 million people were covered by one of the three public health insurance systems. This commentary aims to generate global discussions on how best UHC can be gradually achieve...

The Ghanaian National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) was introduced to provide access to adequate health care regardless of ability to pay. By law the NHIS is mandatory but because the informal sector has to make premium payment before they are enrolled, the authorities are unable to enforce mandatory nature of the scheme. The ultimate goal of the Scheme then is to provide all residents with ac...

Editorials 482 In this edition of the Bulletin, Marks-Sultan et al. 1 propose that the World Health Organization (WHO) should provide capacity-building for drafting health laws in Member States. They highlight that WHO has the authority and credibility to work with countries to make their national laws easier to access, understand, monitor and evaluate. WHO's new technical support work related ...

Jonathan Quick and colleagues discuss how women's health world-wide can be improved through universal health coverage.

Universal health coverage generates significant health and economic benefits and enables governments to reduce inequity. Where universal health coverage has been implemented well, it can contribute to nation-building. This analysis reviews evidence from Asia and Pacific drawing out determinants of successful systems and barriers to progress with a focus on women and children. Access to healthca...

862 www.thelancet.com Vol 380 September 8, 2012 Underpinning the trends examined in The Lancet’s Series on universal health coverage are several points that deserve deeper appreciation. Call them EPIC—a fi tting acronym, in view of the epic transition now underway as the world moves towards universal coverage. The E in EPIC is for economics. Good health is not only a consequence of economic dev...