Premier Global Health Journal, The Lancet, Releases Series on Universal Health Coverage
The world’s premier global health journal, The Lancet, released a special collection of papers exploring the social, political, and economic issues around the global movement towards universal health coverage (UHC) – defined by the World Health Organization as everyone in a population having access to appropriate, promotive, preventive, curative, and rehabilitative health care when they need it and at an affordable cost. This series comes at a time when UHC has been at the forefront of the global public health conversation – and is a significant step forward in an effort to achieve a UN resolution on UHC, and embed UHC prominently within the post-Millennium Development Goals framework.
Why health workers count for achieving universal health coverage
Debates and discussions about universal health coverage (UHC) tend to focus on the need for more equitable and efficient health financing systems. Whilst health financing reform is a crucial part of the equation, other health system building blocks, including human resources for health, also need to be considered.
Each country will have a different approach to achieving UHC, but every government will need to ensure they have a strong health workforce if they are to be successful in achieving and sustaining UHC.
China: Next steps on the path to universal coverage
Since the Chinese government announced the National Reform Plan in 2009, the country has made remarkable progress towards achieving nearly universal health coverage (UHC). China’s Reform Plan is a massive undertaking. Now in the first phase of a decade-long plan, it is currently finalizing a three-year, $125-billion initiative that has provided health coverage to more than 90% of the nation's residents, and requires coordination across China’s 15 (!) national ministries that interact - in one way or another - with the health sector, and five government-sponsored insurance schemes.
China’s move towards UHC was accelerated by macroeconomic changes in the 1970’s that resulted in rapid economic growth and a societal shift away from collective agriculture towards urbanization. This trend resulted in a more Western lifestyle, and shifted the disease burden from communicable diseases towards a greater prevalence of chronic diseases.
The Week in Headlines
UHC Forward's weekly roundup of headlines from around the globe
Governments around the world are engaging in serious political and technical discussions on how to expand health coverage. Still others are considering such reforms, but are struggling to navigate the legal, financial, and political frameworks of their countries to determine the best path towards reform.
Below is a list of UHC-related headlines from around the world:
General News
Jeanette Vega: putting equity and resilience into global health: With its centenary next year, the Rockefeller Foundation's mission remains unchanged: promoting the well-being of humanity worldwide. But the landscape a century on is very different, according to Jeanette Vega, who became the Foundation's Managing Director earlier this year and leads the agency's global health programs.
2nd Global Symposium on Health Systems Research offers sponsorship opportunities for journalists
The 2nd Global Symposium on Health Systems Research invites journalists from low- and middle- income countries to apply for travel support, expenses and registration to attend the upcoming Symposium, to be held in Beijing from October 31 to November 3, 2012. Leading experts and speakers from across the world will be participating in the ground-breaking meeting centered on the theme of ‘Inclusion and Innovation towards Universal Health Coverage’ and which will showcase research on the way health systems do and don’t work.
The Symposium is being hosted by the Peking University Health Science Center, and co-sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) through the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research and Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR); and BRAC University in Bangladesh.
August 31, 2012 is the deadline for applications.
The Week in Headlines
UHC Forward's weekly roundup of headlines from around the globe
Governments around the world are engaging in serious political and technical discussions on how to expand health coverage. Still others are considering such reforms, but are struggling to navigate the legal, financial, and political frameworks of their countries to determine the best path towards reform.
Below is a list of UHC-related headlines from around the world:
General News
The quest for universal health coverage: achieving social protection for all in Mexico: A national health insurance programme called Seguro Popular is providing access to a package of comprehensive health services with financial protection for more than 50 million Mexicans previously excluded from insurance.
The relationship between HIV and UHC
Almost as soon as the 19th International AIDS Conference in D.C. wrapped up, bad news came from one of the great success stories in the fight against HIV/AIDS—Uganda. According to the New York Times, HIV infection rates in Uganda have increased since 2005, despite the U.S. spending $1.7 billion over the past seven years through PEPFAR on HIV/AIDS prevention. Even with this setback, the campaign against HIV/AIDS has been very successful and the goal of the 19th International AIDS Conference was to keep the momentum going—to keep fighting the once inevitable killer.
One way to do this, which could be mutually beneficial to both parties, is to partner with growing global community of health experts that are leading the charge for universal health coverage (UHC) around the world.
Looking back on the Harare Declaration and the Bamako Initiative
(B. M. on behalf of the Harmonization for Health in Africa Communities of Practice)
25 years ago, between the 3rd and the 7th of August 1987, the WHO organized an inter-regional meeting in Harare. The meeting, which was about the implementation of primary health care (following up of the Alma Ata conference in1978), ended with a statement that is known (or forgotten!) today as the Harare Declaration. By establishing the health district model as a reference strategy to organize and develop health services, this event shaped health systems in many poor countries. This strategy particularly shaped health service provision in rural Africa.
A few weeks later, UNICEF organized another regional meeting in Bamako. It went down in history as the Bamako Initiative.
The Week in Headlines
UHC Forward's weekly roundup of headlines from around the globe
Governments around the world are engaging in serious political and technical discussions on how to expand health coverage. Still others are considering such reforms, but are struggling to navigate the legal, financial, and political frameworks of their countries to determine the best path towards reform.
Below is a list of UHC-related headlines from around the world:
Ghana
Progressivity of health care financing and incidence of service benefits in Ghana: A comprehensive assessment of the financing and benefit incidence of health services in Ghana. This analysis draws on secondary data from the Ghana Living Standards Survey (2005/2006) and from an additional household survey, which collected data in 2008 in six districts covering the three main ecological zones of Ghana.
Informatisation des mutuelles de santé
Comment l’utilisation des technologies de l’information peut améliorer le recouvrement des cotisations dans les mutuelles de santé
(Cross-posted from the Health Harmonization in Africa Financial Access to Health Services Community of Practice) - Cheickna Toure, Executive Vice President Technical Union of Malian Mutuality UTM, describes the experience of Mali in attempting to answer the question, "how can the use of information technology improve the collection of contributions in mutual health?"
*Il y a un peu plus d’un an, le gouvernement du Mali adoptait une stratégie nationale d’extension de la couverture maladie par les mutuelles de santé au bout d’un processus qui a regroupé les parties prenantes à la question de l’assurance maladie (gouvernement, organisations mutualistes, structures d’encadrement technique, partenaires techniques et financiers,). A des moments particuliers, il eut des voyages d’études dans certains pays africains notamment au Rwanda pour bien appréhender les facteurs de réussite des expériences conduites et les écueils à éviter.