Many countries are committed to achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) — increasing service coverage and financial protection — and improved population health. Moving toward UHC is an important objective for health systems. However the 2023 UHC Global Monitoring Report indicates that improvements to service coverage have stagnated and financial protection has declined, raising concerns about the ability and commitment of countries to accelerate progress on the UHC targets by 2030.
In this special issue on “Objective-Oriented Health Systems Reform: Implications for Moving Towards Universal Health Coverage,” 50 authors from 12 countries share their analyses and perspectives on health reforms in Latin America, Africa and Asia. The papers describe why and how health financing reforms were implemented to address identified objectives and causes of health system underperformance. The papers discuss positive and negative lessons for other countries as they make changes to their health systems to advance UHC.
