The World Health Organization, World Bank Group
Released online: June 2015
Overview / Resumen:
Bringing universal health coverage (UHC) into focus: One of the main challenges faced in supporting UHC-oriented reform is the perception on the part of some decision-makers
that UHC is too diffuse a concept, and UHC-related progress unquantifiable. This first global monitoring report on tracking UHC is produced partly to challenge that notion. Most countries are already generating credible, comparable data on both health service and financial protection coverage, despite data blind spots on key public health concerns such as noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and health service quality. Broadly defined, UHC means all people receiving the quality health services they need, without being exposed to financial hardship. UHC involves three coverage dimensions – health services, finance, and population – and is a dynamic, continuous process that changes in response to shifting demographic, epidemiological and technological trends, as well as people’s expectations […]
The tracer health service indicators: The report presents the global and regional situation with regard to eight core tracer health service coverage indicators for: reproductive and newborn health (family planning, antenatal care, skilled birth attendance); child immunization (three doses of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP)-containing vaccine); infectious disease (antiretroviral therapy (ART), tuberculosis (TB) treatment); and non-health sector determinants of health (improved water sources and improved sanitary facilities). The indicators have been chosen because they involve health interventions from which every individual in every country should benefit – no matter what the country’s level of socioeconomic development or epidemiological circumstances, and no matter what type of health system it may have – and because recent, comparable data are available for most countries. The picture they present is mixed. On the one hand more people have access to essential health services today than at any other time in history. In some cases, global population coverage already surpasses the 80% minimum proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO)/World Bank global monitoring framework […]
Moving forward: Notwithstanding the persistence of inequities in access to health services (400 million people lacking at least one of seven essential health services) and the relatively high level of impoverishment caused by health spending, it is apparent that UHC progress is a reality, and that key aspects of that reality are measurable. This first global monitoring report on tracking UHC shows that using a core set of tracer indicators of the kind recommended by the WHO/World Bank Group UHC monitoring framework, it is possible to track progress in key areas of financial protection and health services coverage not just for populations as a whole, but for critical subpopulations such as people living in rural areas and the poor.
Keywords / Palabras clave:
Universal Health Coverage; Delivery of Health Care; Healthcare Financing; Health Services Accessibility; Cost of Illness; Program Evaluation; Global Health
Access the full report / Acceso al Informe completo: click here.
