Making Fair Choices on the Path to Universal Health Coverage
2014
This report addresses the issues of fairness and equity in making decisions about universal health coverage (UHC). It clarifies the issues surrounding UHC and offers practical recommendations. Since 2010, more than one hundred countries have requested policy support and technical advice for universal health coverage (UHC) reform from the World Health Organization (WHO). As part of the response, WHO set up a Consultative Group on Equity and Universal Health Coverage. This is the final report by the Consultative Group. The report argues that, to achieve UHC, countries must advance in at least three dimensions: (1) expand priority services, (2) face the critical choices of which services to expand first, whom to include first, and (3) how to shift from out-of-pocket payment toward prepayment. When pursuing UHC, reasonable decisions and their enforcement can be facilitated by robust public accountability and participation mechanisms. These mechanisms should be institutionalized, and the design of legitimate institutions can be informed by the Accountability for Reasonableness framework. A strong system for monitoring and evaluation is needed to promote accountability and participation and is indispensable for effectively pursuing UHC.
Making Fair Choices on the Path to Universal Health Coverage
Source:
Making Fair Choices on the Path to Universal Health Coverage: Final Report of the WHO Consultative Group on Equity and Universal Health Coverage. World Health Organization 2014. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/112671.