Citation: Acharya M (2015) Universal health coverage as a distinct sustainable development goals target: dispelling doubts and underlining implications. United Nations General Assembly is preparing proposal for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and it has recently made explicit its working group proposal. Health-related SDG (SDG3) focus on health, envisioning healthy lives for people at all...

This article discusses what ethicists have called “unacceptable trade-offs” in health policy choices related to universal health coverage (UHC). Since the fiscal space is constrained, trade-offs need to be made. But some trade-offs are unacceptable on the path to universal coverage. Unacceptable choices include, among other examples from low-income countries, to expand coverage for services wit...

When is a country financially ready to implement universal health coverage (UHC), a health policy designed to ensure that all citizens receive the health services they need without financial hardship? Since no standard set of essential health services or a defined benefits package for universal coverage exists, determining financial readiness is challenging. Health priorities must be set knowin...

Can the right to health, and particularly the core obligations of states specified under this right, assist in formulating and implementing universal health coverage (UHC), now included in the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals? In this paper, we examine how core obligations under the right to health could lead to a version of UHC that is likely to advance equity and rights. We first addre...

Achieving universal health coverage (UHC) involves distributing resources, especially human resources for health (HRH), to match population needs. This paper explores the policy lessons on HRH from four countries that have achieved sustained improvements in UHC: Brazil, Ghana, Mexico and Thailand. Its purpose is to inform global policy and financial commitments on HRH in support of UHC. The pap...

This paper discusses whether European institutions should devote so much attention and funding to cross-border healthcare or they should instead prioritise guaranteeing universal health coverage (UHC), inequalities and tackling the effects of austerity measures. The paper argues through providing the evidence in both areas of research, that the priority at European level from a public health an...

this paper discusses whether european institutions should devote so much attention and funding to cross-border healthcare or they should instead prioritise guaranteeing universal health coverage (uhc), inequalities and tackling the effects of austerity measures. the paper argues through providing the evidence in both areas of research, that the priority at european level from a public health an...

Universal health coverage (UHC) is the big objective in health policy which several countries are seeking to achieve. Egypt is no different and its endeavors to attain UHC have been going on since the 1960s. This article discusses the status of UHC in Egypt using theories of political science and economics by analyzing the historical transformations in the Egyptian health system and its institu...

Before 2002, 30% of the entire Thai population of 63 million people remained uninsured. With the advent of the Universal Coverage Scheme (UCS) that combined a medical welfare lowincome card scheme and a government-subsidized voluntary health card scheme with a coverage extension to the remaining uninsured, Thailand achieved the status of universal health coverage (UHC) in 2002 in terms of insur...

To achieve universal health coverage (UHC), a range of health-financing reforms, including removal of user fees and the expansion of social health insurance, have been implemented in many countries. While the focus of much research and discussion on UHC has been on the impact of health-financing reforms on population coverage, health-service utilization and out-of-pocket payments, the implicati...