Universal health coverage anchored in the right to health

Abstract

This editorial was published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization [© 2013 Bulletin of the World Health Organization] and the definite version is available at: http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/91/1/12-115808/en

Human resources for health and universal health coverage: fostering equity and effective coverage

“…21 We use an analytical framework ( Fig. 1) specifically adapted from the UHC "cube" 4 -integrating Tanahashi's health coverage model and the right to health 2,19,22 -to characterize the dimensions of effective coverage: availability, accessibility, acceptability, utilization and quality. The paper focuses on these four dimensions as they apply specifically to the health workforce: availability (e.g.…”

“…1 The evolving momentum for universal health coverage (UHC), with its principles of equity and social justice, aims to ensure that all members of a society can access the health-care services they need without incurring financial hardship. 2,3 UHC encompasses the three dimensions of who is covered (population coverage), what is covered (health-care benefits) and how much of the cost is covered (financial protection), all of which may expand over time. 4 Addressing these three dimensions of UHC [5][6][7] within the boundaries of fiscal space 8 is challenging for all countries.…”

Using Concept Mapping to Develop a Human Rights Based Indicator Framework to Assess Country Efforts to Strengthen Rehabilitation Provision and Policy: The Rehabilitation System Diagnosis and Dialogue (RESYST) Framework

“…For example the relationship between "legal commitments" and "strategic priorities" is not simply linguistic but reflects the interaction among the elements of the framework within this cluster (indicators) -how one affects the others and is in turn affected by them, which is what converts these elements into a unified whole. [46] Specifically, the Legal Commitments and Strategic Priorities cluster underlines the obligation of States to incorporate the key provisions of the CRPD in domestic legislation [67] (Indicators #103, #20, #79, #14, #15, #56, #81) as a crucial means in realizing the right to health of PWD [68] and strengthening health systems [69,70] and suggests that national priorities in the context of SGDs (Indicators #17, #66, #39) be informed by the international human rights standards, a view that is shared widely among leading commentators and global health experts [71][72][73]. A similar interpretation can occur across other clusters of indicators allowing an in depth examination of systemic issues pertaining to rehabilitation service delivery, financing and workforce planning.…”

Health Rights and Realization Comment on "Rights Language in the Sustainable Development Agenda: Has Right to Health Discourse and Norms Shaped Health Goals?"

“…They (with colleagues) have also written elsewhere that the concept of UHC represents a significant improvement on the MDGs. 8,9 But -as they acknowledge -there may be an element of danger in drawing too close parallels between what is in the SDGs and what we might wish had been there in terms of the right to health. 'Ensuring healthy lives, ' the overall title of Goal 3, does indeed sound very like 'health for all. '…”

“…9 Whilst some of these determinants (including poverty, food security, gender equality and water and sanitation) are addressed elsewhere in the SDGs -and as components of the right to health in other documents, including CESCR General Comment 14 10 -there is a danger that in the context of Goal 3 the right to health and the right to access health services become blurred into the same thing, gradually narrowing the scope of how we understand the right to health in the process.…”