Universal Health Coverage Day

Today is the International day for Universal Health Coverage, one of the areas WSM and its partners focus on for the right to social protection.

Universal Health Coverage Day on 12 December is the annual rallying point for the growing movement for health for all. It marks the anniversary of the United Nations’ historic and unanimous endorsement of universal health coverage in 2012.Last year, this Coalition launched a petition calling for recognition of 12 December as Universal Health Coverage Day – and a few minutes ago, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution that finally makes it official.The UN’s vote today doesn’t change the fact that millions of people still go bankrupt when they get sick. We all know we still have a lot of work to do. But official recognition for UHC Day is a sure sign that this movement has the staying power to transform societies.

The WHO and World Bank just released the 2017 Global Monitoring Report on UHC, with new data on service coverage and health financing for 132 countries – a major update to the 37-country report from 2015.

Here are the headlines:

• Half the world’s people – more than 3.5 billion – don’t receive all the essential health services they need. This includes one billion people living with uncontrolled hypertension, 200 million women without access to family planning and 20 million infants unprotected by vaccines.
• 800 million people experience catastrophic out-of-pocket health costs each year. In other words, 1 in 9 people spend more than 10% of their household budgets paying for health.
• And 100 million people are still pushed into extreme poverty each year by these costs, with even more falling below the official $3.10-a-day poverty line.

Here are just a few of the ways people committed to take action at the UHC Forum’s closing event:
·       The Government of Japan pledged $2.9 billion in support to countries pursuing UHC.
·       The Ministry of Health of Nigeria committed to providing free primary health care to 8 million more Nigerians in the first quarter of 2018.
·       A delegation of parliamentarians from the African Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development committed to advocate for UHC based on the needs of the people.
·       The Gates Foundation announced plans to invest in better measurement of primary health care and to rally parliamentarians behind UHC.
·       IFMSA – representing 1.3 million medical students from 127 countries – committed to empowering youth to advocate for and implement UHC.
·       UHC2030 committed to implementing an Advocacy Strategy that will help partners identify effective actions for a community-driven social movement.
·       The Civil Society Engagement Mechanism for UHC2030 released a statement of principles, pledging to prioritize the most vulnerable and urge a minimum 5% GDP level of health spending by all governments.
·       The WHO High-level Commission on Non-Communicable Diseases committed to find common ground for the NCD and UHC agendas.
·       UHC Youth Japan pledged to push their own government and the world to leave no one behind.

These commitments are promising steps. As a movement, we need to hold leaders and ourselves accountable for action and results in every country. And we need to recognize advocates and change-makers of all kinds—particularly at the national and local level—for every hard-fought gain.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, that all UN Member States have agreed to, try to achieve Universal Health Coverage by 2030. This includes financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all.