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...

a recent editorial by naoki ikegami has proposed three key lessons from japan’s experience of achieving virtually universal coverage with primary healthcare services: the need to integrate the existing providers of primary healthcare services into the organised health system; the need to limit government commitments to finance hospital services and the need to empower providers of primary healt...

The goal of achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) can generally be realized only in stages. Moreover, resource, capacity, and political constraints mean governments often face difficult trade-offs on the path to UHC. In a 2014 report, Making fair choices on the path to UHC, the WHO Consultative Group on Equity and Universal Health Coverage articulated principles for making such trade-offs i...

the world health organization’s (who’s) world health report 2010, “health systems financing, the path to universal coverage,” promoted universal health coverage (uhc) as an aspirational objective for country health systems. yet, in addition to the dimensions of services and coverage, distribution of coverage in the population, and financial risk protection highlighted by the report, the conside...

universal health coverage in thailand: achievement and experiences learned doshmangir l1,2 (msc, phd), rashidian a3,4 (md, phd), bazyar m3* (msc, phd condidate) 1 department of health services management, iranian center of exellence in health management, tabriz university of medical sciences, tabriz, iran 2 tabriz health services management research center, tabriz university of medical sciences...

The World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) World Health Report 2010, “Health systems financing, the path to universal coverage,” promoted universal health coverage (UHC) as an aspirational objective for country health systems. Yet, in addition to the dimensions of services and coverage, distribution of coverage in the population, and financial risk protection highlighted by the report, the conside...

Progressive realisation is invoked as the guiding principle for countries on their own path to universal health coverage (UHC). It refers to the governmental obligations to immediately and progressively move towards the full realisation of UHC. This paper provides procedural guidance for countries, that is, how they can best organise their processes and evidence collection to make decisions on ...

Unless the concept is clearly understood, "universal coverage" (or universal health coverage, UHC) can be used to justify practically any health financing reform or scheme. This paper unpacks the definition of health financing for universal coverage as used in the World Health Organization's World health report 2010 to show how UHC embodies specific health system goals and intermediate objectiv...

this article provides a commentary to ole norheim’ s editorial entitled “ethical perspective: five unacceptable trade-offs on the path to universal health coverage.” it reinforces its message that an inclusive, participatory process is essential for ethical decision-making and underlines the crucial importance of good governance in setting fair priorities in healthcare. solidarity on both natio...