In the recent years, over 100 countries around the world has requested policy support and technical advice for Universal Health Coverage (UHC) reform from World Health Organization (WHO). Since then WHO set up a Consultative Group on Equity and Universal Health Coverage and the final report by the Group has recently published addressing the key issues of fairness and equity that arise on the path to UHC by clarifying these issues and by offering practical recommendations.

This report addresses emphasizes the critical choices of fairness and equity that arise on the path to UHC. Accordingly, the report is not primarily about why UHC ought to be a goal, but about the path to that goal. The report may differ from others in the direct way it addresses fundamental issues and difficult trade-offs. This approach was facilitated by the involvement of philosophers and ethicists in addition to economists, policy experts, and clinical doctors.

The report says that in order to achieve UHC countries must advance in at least three dimensions; expand priority services, include more people, and reduce out-of-pocket payments.

As countries are facing critical choice regarding  which services to expand first, whom to include first, and how to shift from out-of-pocket payment toward prepayment, the report proposed three-part-strategy for countries seeking fair progressive realization of UHC. Countries can do the following:

• Categorize services into priority classes. Relevant criteria include those related to cost-effectiveness, priority to the worse off, and financial risk protection
• First expand coverage for high-priority services to everyone. This includes eliminating out-of-pocket payments while increasing mandatory, progressive prepayment with pooling of funds
• When doing this, ensure that disadvantaged groups are not left behind. These will often include low-income groups and rural populations

You can download the full report here!

Source:

http://www.who.int/choice/documents/making_fair_choices/en/