This article opens a debate about how to think about moving forward with the emerging twin movements of human resources for health (HRH) and universal health coverage (UHC). There is sufficient evidence to warrant these movements, but actors and the policy process significantly affect which policies are adopted and how they are implemented. How exactly this occurs in low- and middle-income coun...

BACKGROUND Medicines are a major driver of quality, safety, equity, and cost of care in low and middle-income country health systems. Universal health coverage implementers must explicitly address appropriate use of medicines to realize the health benefits of medicines, avoid wasting scarce resources, and sustain the financial viability of universal health coverage schemes. DISCUSSION Medicin...

Background   Should health systems invest more in access to care by expanding insurance coverage or in health care services including improving the quality of care? Comparing these options experimentally would shed light on the impact and cost-effectiveness of these strategies. Methods   The Quality Improvement Demonstration Study (QIDS) was a randomized policy experiment conducted across 30 ...

BACKGROUND The UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted in September 2015, include a comprehensive health goal, "to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being at all ages." The health goal (SDG 3) has nine substantive targets and four additional targets which are identified as a means of implementation. One of these commitments, to achieve universal health coverage (UHC), has been ac...

cost-effectiveness analysis (cea) can help countries attain and sustain universal health coverage (uhc), as long as it is context-specific and considered within deliberative processes at the country level. institutionalising robust deliberative processes requires significant time and resources, however, and countries often begin by demanding evidence (including local cea evidence as well as evi...

BACKGROUND There is a growing international commitment to universal health coverage (UHC), but limited means to determine progress towards that goal. We developed a practical index for capturing health service coverage - a critical dimension of UHC -- that was more inclusive than previous methods. METHODS Our data included publicly-available, indicators reflecting health service delivery, inf...

Background Despite the implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) since 2005 in Nigeria, the level of health insurance coverage remains low. The study aims to examine the predictors of enrolment in the NHIS among women of reproductive age in Nigeria.   Methods Secondary data from the 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) were utilized to ex...

Progress towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) requires making difficult trade-offs. In this journal, Dr. Margaret Chan, the WHO Director-General, has endorsed the principles for making such decisions put forward by the WHO Consultative Group on Equity and UHC. These principles include maximizing population health, priority for the worse off, and shielding people from health-related financial...

Perspectives There is global consensus on the goals of universal health coverage (UHC), which has been defined as " all people receiving quality health services that meet their needs without exposing them to financial hardship in paying for them. " 1 Yet despite this consensus, it remains unclear how the global health community can achieve universal coverage. The obvious answer is to ensure tha...

A government that claims to provide universal health coverage (UHC) needs to establish that access to health services is available for the whole population for the full spectrum of services without risk of undue financial hardship. Embedded within the idea of UHC are two distinct notions. First, access to the full spectrum of health services needs to include access to preventive care through to...