Health financing for Universal Health Coverage

The goal of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is to provide quality essential health services to the entire population of a country without any financial burden. It forms part of the United Nations’ seventeen Sustainable Development Goals. The manner in which a country’s healthcare system is financed is an important tool towards achieving Universal Health Coverage.

As Doris Osei Afriyie points out in this video, Universal Health Coverage is a commitment that countries have made in order to improve the health and well-being of their populations. To fully achieve Universal Health Coverage, countries need to reflect on how their healthcare systems are financed.

Doris Osei Afriyie describes the key questions relating to health financing, including:

• How is revenue raised?
• How are funds pooled?
• Which services can be purchased?
• How should benefits be designed?
• What do the beneficiaries of these benefits need to understand?

When a country adapts its health financing in order to achieve Universal Health Coverage, the following tenets are critical for success:

• For UHC, the amount of money raised is equally important as the manner in which this money is spent.
• Focusing on vulnerable populations should be a priority. This includes children under five years, people with a low income, and rural residents.
• In low- and middle-income countries, focusing on providing low-cost services with high health benefits is crucial.
• UHC should result in a reduction of out-of-pocket payments.

After having watched the video, consider one of these tenets and explain in two to three sentences why you think it is important. We look forward to reading your comments and discussions!

References

Bannister D. Futures and the past in Ghana’s Universal Health Coverage infrastructure [Internet]. 2020 [cited 1 December 2021]. Available from: http://somatosphere.net/2020/universal-health-coverage-ghana.html/