PURPOSE: The Universal Health Coverage Day observed on 12 December is the annual rallying point for advocates to raise the voices and share the stories of the millions of people still waiting for health, call on leaders to make smarter investments in health and remind the world about the imperative of universal health coverage (UHC). UHC means that all individuals and communities receive the health services they need without suffering financial hardship. It includes the full spectrum of essential, quality health services, from health promotion to prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care across the life course. The delivery of these services require adequate and competent health and care workers with optimal skills mix at facility, outreach and community level, and who are equitably distributed, adequately supported and enjoy decent work. As demonstrated over the past 75 years, WHO continues to stand with all people, communities, and organizations across the world in taking action towards health for all.
FORUM: "Health: it's on the government!" International Universal Health Coverage Day 2024. The high cost of health services is the primary reason people miss out on essential health care. These costs often force families to choose between paying for medicines or a visit to the doctor and other necessities, such as food, housing and education. Health costs and illness should never push people into poverty. Investing in universal health coverage and financial protection not only enhances health and well-being but also fosters greater equity and social cohesion.When populations are healthy, communities and economies prosper. That is why we call on decision makers around the world to protect people from financial hardship when accessing health services. It is the responsibility of governments to ensure that healthcare is always affordable or free, particularly for the poorest and most vulnerable among us. Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Day 2024 will focus on the role of financial protection in accelerating progress towards UHC. Financial protection ensures that people don’t fall into poverty because of having to pay out-of-pocket for health costs. Over the last 20 years, financial protection has progressively deteriorated, with 2 billion people experiencing financial hardship and 1.3 billion people pushed into poverty due to health spending. This means that mothers may miss out on the life-saving intervention they need for themselves or their children, people are not diagnosed and treated for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) on time, with delays in early treatment leading to severe, untreatable or life-threatening illnesses. Healthier populations build communities that are more resilient, productive, peaceful and prosperous. Health for all is a prerequisite to achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs). In spite of numerous high-level political commitments to achieve UHC by 2030, over half of the world’s population still has no access to essential health services. UHC will remain elusive until governments adequately invest in protecting people – particularly the most vulnerable among us – from impoverishing health spending. This UHC Day, WHO calls for urgent action to put financial protection measures in place. Join us in starting discussions and taking action to make financial protection and #HealthForAll a reality. This year, UHC Day presents an opportunity to revitalize commitments towards accelerating UHC. Follow the conversations with the hashtags: #Timeforaction, #Healthexpenditure, #InvestinHealth, #healthForAll, #UHC, #12December, #UHCday, #UniversalHealthCoverage.
EVENTS: On December 12th, the World Health Assembly (WHA), the Regional offices of the World Health Organization and the Global Health Council with host an event to mark the International Universal Health Coverage Day 2024 visible by the people living in the Latin America region, in the South-East Asia Region, in the European Region, in the African Region and in the Western Pacific Region. See what campaigners are doing around the world and get your event featured on the UHC Day global heatmap by filling this form.
WEBINAR: On Thursday, December 12th, the WHO and its 6 regional offices will mark Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Day with a series of events, which are open to the public through the live stream links below. These events will recognize and celebrate bold actions towards UHC reforms made by political leaders and decision-makers throughout 2024. Accelerating progress towards UHC by 2030 is achievable but requires reducing financial barriers in accessing health services and protecting people from financial hardship. Learn how WHO is working with countries to make this happen. Stay tuned!
On December 12th 2024, from 18:00 – 20:00 pm. CET in the Americas regions from the PAHO/WHO will held a virtual event to mark the day. Watch the virtual event!
On December 12th, 2024, from 07:30 – 09:30 am CET in the Asia-Pacific regions from the WHO WPRO will held a virtual event to mark the day. Watch the virtual event!
On December 12th, 2024, from 12:30 – 14:30 pm CET in the African, Eastern Mediterranean and European regions from the WHO EMRO will held a virtual event to mark the day. Watch the virtual event!
PUBLICATIONS: Launch of the Global Health Expenditure Report 2024, on December 12th during the Universal Health Coverage Day 2024. The world is off track to make significant progress towards universal health coverage (UHC) (SDG target 3.8) by 2030 as improvements to health services coverage have stagnated since 2015, and the proportion of the population that faced catastrophic levels of out-of-pocket (OOP) health spending has increased.
Read the following suggested reports:
PODCASTS: PHC entails three inter-related and synergistic components, including: comprehensive integrated health services that embrace primary care as well as public health goods and functions as central pieces; multisectoral policies and actions to address the upstream and wider determinants of health; and engaging and empowering individuals, families, and communities for increased social participation and enhanced self-care and self-reliance in health. Listen to the audio-podcasts!
CAMPAIGN MATERIALS: 2024 UHC Day campaign "Health: it's on the government!" aims:
Recognize and celebrate UHC progress in the regions;
Raise awareness to improve understanding on the importance of UHC for societal and economic wellbeing.
Empower the public and civil societies to actively engage policy makers to deliver on their UHC commitments.
Explore the materials in Arabic, in Chinese, in French in Russian in Spanish languages and Get the communication materials!
WHY WE CELEBRATE THE DAY?
HOW TO GET INVOLVED!
PARTNERSHIPS
The UHC Day is organized by the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Bank Group, the Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the UHC2030 alliance.
With the participation o Health experts, Private and Public Health Sectors, Civil society Organizations, Non-Governental Organization, Community health service organization, Healrg researchers and academics.
Take stock of the implementation of the 2019 Political Declaration on UHC, evaluate gaps, challenges, and share best practices and lessons learned to advance progress on UHC.
Identify the effects of COVID-19 on UHC and share efforts to build back better and accelerate progress towards UHC.
Kickstart thematic discussions leading up to 2023 High Level Meeting on UHC, including identifying a shared vision of Health for All and clear objectives for UHC and global health security, around: 1) financing, 2) PHC, and 3) coordination and governance.
Promote political action and leadership for sustainable domestic and global health financing, particularly in the contracted fiscal space for social spending resulting from COVID-19, including through debt suspension and relief for low and middle-income countries (LMICs);
Encourage commitments for strengthening national health systems using a PHC approach to deliver integrated quality services with financial protection and equity, including through increased budgetary allocations for PHC.
The International Universal Health Coverage Day is observed on December 12th to accelerate progress toward universal health coverage (UHC); Primary Health Coverage (PHC) is critical to make health systems more resilient to situations of crisis, more proactive in detecting early signs of epidemics, and more prepared to act early in response to surges in demand for services. Investing in PHC has enormous benefits for promoting health, preventing diseases, advancing equity, and for health security. Estimates show that investing in PHC could increase global life expectancy by as much as 6.7 years by 2030. WHO, therefore, recommends that every country allocate or reallocate an additional 1% of GDP to PHC from government and external funding sources in order to close coverage gaps. A PHC approach, in tandem with strengthening essential public health functions, is effective, efficient and equitable. In recent years, there has been important progress at the political level, with the Declaration of Astana on Primary Health Care in 2018, and the Political Declaration on Universal Health Coverage at the UN General Assembly in 2019. As we look to strengthen health systems in the wake of COVID-19, re-orientation of resources toward primary health care and essential public health functions will be critical for the achievement of UHC and the health-related SDGs.
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People and organizations who want to help fight the pandemic and support WHO and partners can donate. Achieving UHC means everyone will have access to essential health services – including safe, effective and affordable medicines and vaccines – without financial hardship. You can participate through numerous partnerships and health care product donations to non-governmental organizations, health care professional associations to enhance health for all.