UHC Presents Universal Challenges

Figures & data

Table 1. Major Global UHC Milestones

Year	Milestone	Significance
1948	United Nations General Assembly Universal Declaration of Human Rights	The right to a universal minimum standard of health enumerated in international agreement.
1948	World Health Organization Constitution	World Health Organization is established on the premise that the “highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, and political belief, economic or social condition.”
1978	Alma Ata Declaration	A landmark declaration of the principle of working for “health for all” at a global conference on primary health.
2005	World Health Assembly Resolution 58.33	Universal health care endorsed by the World Health Assembly for sustainable health care financing.^1 This Resolution defines universal health care as “access to key promotive, preventive, curative, and rehabilitative interventions for all at an affordable cost, thereby achieving equity in access.”^2
2008	World Health Report	This report emphasizes prepayment and pooling systems for universal health care. More than 80 countries subsequently requested World Health Organization technical support to improve health financing system.
2010	World Health Report	This report promoted health system financing for universal health care, encouraging countries to “raise sufficient funds, reduce reliance on direct payments to finance services, and improve efficiency and equity.”^4
2012	United Nations Resolution A/67/L.3	Resolution emphasizing universal health care as important to human development and recommending its inclusion in post-2015 development agenda.
2013	World Health Organization/World Bank meeting	Joint World Health Organization/World Bank ministerial-level meeting on universal health care in Geneva, Switzerland. Top officials from health and finance ministries from 27 countries stressed the importance of getting political commitment to universal health care at the highest level.
2013	World Health Report	This report calls for research and mobilizing evidence to facilitate the transition of countries toward universal health care.
2015	Sustainable Development Goal 3.8	Among the global commitments made by the members of the United Nations is, “Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all.”^5

World Health Assembly Resolution 58.33. Sustainable health financing, universal coverage and social health insurance. In: Fifty-eighth World Health Assembly, Geneva, 16-25 May 2005. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2005.

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World Health Organization. The world health report 2008—primary health care (now more than ever). Geneva: World Health Organization; 2008.

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World Health Organization. World health report 2013: research for universal health coverage. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2013.

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Global health and foreign policy, sixty-seventh session agenda item 123. New York: United Nations General Assembly; 2012.

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