UHC Forward: Towards Universal Health Coverage

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 universal health coverage (UHC).

Below is a list of UHC-related headlines from around the world for the week of March 18, 2013. If you are viewing this on the web and would prefer to receive The Week in Headlines in your inbox every week, subscribe to the email edition.

COUNTRY NEWS

Ghana

Ethiopian delegation in Ghana to under study NHIS: An 11-member high-powered delegation from Ethiopia is in Ghana to under study the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

Since the World Health Organization (WHO) released their report on universal health coverage (UHC) in 2010, 70 countries have asked them for technical assistance to get on the path to achieve UHC. As part of the WHO’s ongoing work to assist countries, they recently co-hosted with the World Bank a ministerial meeting on UHC in Geneva.

AfGH took part in this meeting together with civil society colleagues working on this agenda at both national and global levels, shaping it from a civil society perspective and ensuring that it delivers on its potential.

The meeting provided an important opportunity for ministers of health and finance, two roles that do not always see eye-to-eye, to come together and discuss what needs to happen to achieve UHC.

This post was first published by the Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage. Reposted here with permission.

Health provider payment systems—the way health providers are paid to deliver services—are increasingly being recognized as a powerful tool in the pursuit of universal health coverage (UHC). In their provider payment reform efforts, many countries are struggling to establish a cost basis for payment rates – the average cost per unit of service provided—to better leverage provider payment policy for UHC (see Box). Determining the cost of health services and then using this cost information to inform payment rates is not easy in data-constrained environments, and there is little existing guidance for countries to follow. Well, not yet anyway.

Civil society has an important role to play in ensuring that the next global development framework effectively delivers for health, from global conversations to working with local communities. This necessary role in different forums and with different expertise reflects the diversity of civil society itself.

Action for Global Health (AfGH) has sought to play a convening role within health civil society globally in relation to the post-2015 agenda. We attended the recent WHO and World Bank Ministerial Meeting on universal health coverage (UHC), where we heard from Ghanaian colleagues on the importance of civil society mobilising the community, reaching the informal sector and education about health promotion. Other key points from this meeting included how achieving Universal Health Coverage depends on political will and having the appropriate legal and social structures in place. None of this will come about without an engaged and informed population demanding their rights.