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 for All, Time for Action." International Universal Health Coverage Day 2023. This year, UHC Day presents an opportunity to revitalize commitments towards accelerating UHC as countries recover from the devastating economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Countries in all Regions needs to make significant progress on the UHC service coverage index, which measures population coverage of essential health services based on tracer interventions that include reproductive, maternal, child health, infectious diseases, non-communicable diseases and service capacity and access. Follow the conversations with the hashtags: #Timeforaction, #Healthexpenditure, #InvestinHealth, #healthForAll, #UHC, #12December, #UHCday, #UniversalHealthCoverage.
EVENTS: On Decembe 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 2023. The theme for this year’s UHC Day is “Health for All: Time for Action”, and invites us to emphasize the need for immediate and tangible steps in creating the world we want. It calls for reflecting on a decade of progress, challenges, and opportunities in advancing UHC. The campaign urges our leaders to enact policies that guarantee equitable access to essential health services without financial hardship and will build on the momentum and outcome from the second United Nations High-Level Meeting on UHC in September 2023: a renewed action-oriented political commitment that will refocus political attention and financial investments on accelerating progress.
Pan American Health Organization will host a forum on how to Invest, Innovate and Implement PHC to Achieve Universal Health.
South-East Asia Region will held a Webinar on UHC-Now More Than Ever.
European Region will organize the Tallinn Charter 15th Anniversary Health Systems Conference: Trust and transformation – resilient and sustainable health systems for the future.
Western Pacific Region will launch the Report entitled - Progress towards universal health coverage: improving financial protection.
WEBINAR: Progress towards UHC: improving financial protection in the Western Pacific Region. On Tuesday, 12 December 2023, 12:30–13:30 Manila time, WHO will host a webinar to share findings from the new report, Progress towards universal health coverage: improving financial protection in the Western Pacific Region. Speakers will include: Lluis Vinals Torres, Director, Division of Health Systems and Services for the WHO Western Pacific Region; Ding Wang, Health Economist, WHO Western Pacific Region; and experts from countries in the region. Register for the event
On December 11th 2023, from 14:30 – 16:00 was held a conference entitled Global Spending on Health: Coping with the Pandemic.
On December 11th, 2023,from 14:00 – 16:00 a panel discussion entitled ''Delivering quality care to everyone,everywhere, at all times.'' was held.
On December 11th, 2023, from 14:00 – 15:30, an event entitled '' Shaping our health future: young leaders and parliamentarians unite for UHC was held.
PUBLICATIONS: 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 followingsuggested 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: 2023 UHC Day campaign aims:
Recognize and celebrate UHC progress in the Region;
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.
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.
Make a donation.
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.