Universal health coverage (UHC) aims to provide all people with access to needed health services without financial hardship. It has three key dimensions: who is covered, what services are covered, and how much of the cost is covered. The three core objectives of UHC are equity in access to services, access to quality essential services, and financial risk protection. Achieving UHC is a priority for many countries and organizations to ensure universal access to healthcare as a basic human right. Challenges to achieving UHC include mobilizing sufficient resources, reducing out-of-pocket costs, and improving efficiency and equity in resource use.

1. Universal Health Coverage

2. Definition
Universal health coverage means
o Equal access to needed promotive, preventive, curative and
rehabilitative health services
o Do not suffer financial hardship when paying for these
services.

3. 3 critical dimensions which include;
• Who is covered?
• What services are covered?
• How much of the cost is covered

4. 3 core objectives of UHC
1.Equity in access to health services: Ensure that everybody who
needs services must get them and are covered by equal healthcare
regardless the age, gender, and income.
2.Ensure quality essential health services: Access to quality essential
health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable
essential medicines and vaccines for all.
3.Financial risk protection: Ensuring that people have access to the
health care they need without suffering financial hardship.

5. Foundation and Background
Healthcare is a basic need of every human being. It should be
considered as a basic human right in which the nation should ensure
that every people are covered by equal healthcare regardless the age,
gender, and income. But 100 billions people worldwide does not go to
the doctors and every year 100 millions people are being pushed into
poverty line to meet health care expenditure of his family members or
himself. To solve this problem , UHC came to the attention of the
international leaders.
• On 12 December 2012, the United Nations (UN) resolution on Foreign
Policy and Global Health recognized the importance of UHC for the
first time ever, and this prompted the UHC Day movement together
with 734 partners in 117 countries.

6. • In September 2015, the commitment to UHC was embedded in the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), underpinning the health goal to
address both financial and physical access to essential health services in a
more comprehensive manner.
• In 2016, the G7 strongly endorsed UHC and emphasized the need for
resilient health systems at their recent Ise-Shima Summit.
• The third UHC Day campaign and UHC Day events took place around the
world. The 2016 event in Geneva was organized by collaborating partners:
International Health Partnership for UHC 2030, WHO, The World Bank
Group, Save the Children, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the
Rockefeller Foundation
• Universal Health Coverage Day, commemorated each 12 December, is the
anniversary of the first unanimous United Nations resolution calling for
countries to provide affordable, quality health care to every person,
everywhere.

7. UHC and Bangladesh
Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is a top priority for Bangladesh. Under
UHC people are expected to have access to needed quality health care
services without any financial hardship.
Financial barrier is still a very important barrier in accessing health
care. As we know that annual per capita health expenditure is $ 27.
Still 64% of health expenditure comes out of pocket which is very
alarming.

8. Challenges for achieving UHC:
First one is mobilizing the resources for health. It does not mean that a
country has to have more wealth. Actually it is the process of
mobilizing resources. Cuba and Rwanda are very good examples for
this.
Second challenge is reducing the out of pocket expenditure.
Third challenge is reducing inefficient and inequitable use of resources.
Other challenges are improving the responsiveness, equity, quality of
healthcare services, use of IT for achieving UHC and so on.

9. WHO report proposes three interrelated health financing strategic
options:
1. Raising sufficient fund for health
2. Reducing heavy reliance on direct out of pocket money
3. Reducing and eliminating inefficient and inequitable use of
resources.