Universal Health Coverage

Universal health coverage can best be achieved by public systems

August 24, 2018

Expanding coverage by ushering in the private sector results in inequities in access, argue Ramya Kumar and Anne-Emanuelle Birn

This year the World Health Organization (WHO) observed its 70th birthday by holding World Health Day in Sri Lanka, where the theme was “Universal Health Coverage: Everyone, Everywhere.” The high profile event focused on the access achievements of Sri Lanka’s acclaimed low cost, publicly financed and delivered healthcare system.[1] Yet missing from the proceedings was any reference to the ongoing privatisation of this system, and its consequences and relevance to the goal of universal health coverage (UHC).

As WHO works towards achieving UHC through “financial risk protection, access to quality essential healthcare services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all,” it sidesteps the reality that expanding coverage by ushering in the private sector results in inequities in access and rising health expenditure./.../