Event highlights
Building on the second high-level meeting on UHC at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2023, and WHO’s 75th anniversary, this year’s Universal Health Coverage Day was an opportunity to garner momentum for accelerating progress towards UHC and reaffirm commitment to achieving Health for All by 2030.
This year’s theme: “Health for All: Time for Action” emphasized the need for immediate and tangible steps to create the world we want, and called on our leaders to make smarter investments to strengthen health systems for greater equity in both delivery of quality essential health services and financial protection against catastrophic health expenditures. A ’12 Days of UHC’ campaign was conducted in December, with messaging focused on highlighting the importance, key aspects and actions for advancing Universal health Coverage in the Region.
Event notice
12 December 2023
Health for All: Time for Action
Universal Health Coverage Day (UHC Day) is commemorated on 12 December every year. It aims to celebrate the progress towards health for all and raise awareness on the need for strong and resilient health systems in achieving universal health coverage.
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 the Western Pacific Region have made 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.
Between 2000 to 2021, the index increased from 49 to 79. However, financial protection in the Region has worsened between 2000 and 2019 as more households face catastrophic health expenditures or out-of-pocket payments above what they can afford. In 2000, 1 in 10 families faced catastrophic health expenditures in the Western Pacific. Today, 1 in 5 families cannot afford care. Across and within countries, there remain persisting inequities in service coverage and financial hardship, which were further exacerbated by the pandemic.
The theme for this year’s UHC Day is “Health for All: Time for Action”, emphasizing the need for immediate and tangible steps in creating the world we want. It calls for reflection 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.
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.
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.
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.
What is financial hardship?