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Universal Health Coverage
OHCHR and the right to health
“
Over half of the world's population still do not have access to essential health services, while marginalized groups are even further denied care due to bias, underfunding & neglect.
On Universal Health Coverage Day I urge governments to:
- Invest in primary health care for all.
- Remove barriers - financial, social, or otherwise.
- Build inclusive systems that protect everyone.
No more delays. Universal health coverage cannot wait.
“
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Universal Health Coverage Day 2024
Universal Health Coverage aims at ensuring that people worldwide have access to essential health services without suffering financial hardship, from health promotion to prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care.
The right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health articulates numerous concrete obligations for States relevant to the UHC, thus making UHC an expression of an important dimension of this right. Among others, it requires that States ensure the availability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality of health services.
Human rights norms and standards have numerous implications for how Universal Health Coverage is designed and implemented. Some of the most important obligations for UHC flowing from the right to health, include:
- Prioritize populations that are most left behind
- Include coverage for essential services
- Proactively increase resources available for health services
- Remove non-financial barriers to health services
- Ensure an inclusive, transparent and accountable process
See: OHCHR overview on Universal Health Coverage and the Right to Health, June 2023
Report on universal health coverage and human rights (E/2019/52)
In the present report, submitted pursuant to General Assembly resolution 48/141, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights examines how the human rights framework, particularly the rights to health and to social security, can contribute to the conceptualization of universal health coverage and to its implementation.
The report outlines some of the key human rights challenges of extending universal health coverage, such as access to medicines, deficits in the health work force, the impact of corruption and the very sizeable populations and groups who have been excluded from health coverage.
The High Commissioner concludes that, in keeping with the character of the right to health as an inclusive right encompassing service delivery and the underlying determinants of health, universal health coverage must incorporate effective access and other determinants of health, as well as formal coverage. Link to report page.