Universal health coverage

1. Universal health
coverage
UHC
By/
Asmaa Ghanem
Fourth year student at FOM-PSU

2. Universal health care, sometimes referred to
as universal health coverage, universal coverage,
or universal care,
usually refers to a health care system providing a
specified package of benefits to all members of a society
with the end goal of providing financial risk protection,
improved access to health services, and improved health
outcomes.
Universal health care is not one-size-fits-all and does not
imply coverage for all people for everything. Universal
health care can be determined by three critical
dimensions:
who is covered, what services are covered, and how
much of the cost is covered.

3. WHO definition of Universal health coverage & health financing
UHC means that
All people and communities can use the promotive, preventive,
curative, rehabilitative and palliative health services they need,
of sufficient quality to be effective, while also ensuring that the
use of these services does not expose the user to financial
hardship.
This definition of UHC embodies three related objectives:
1. Equity in access to health services, everyone who needs
services should get them, not only those who can pay for them.
2. The quality of health services should be good enough to improve
the health of those receiving services
3. People should be protected against financial-risk, ensuring
that the cost of using services does not put people at risk of
financial harm.

4. This requires:
an efficient health system that provides the entire population
with access to good quality services, health workers, medicines
and technologies.
It also requires a financing system to protect people from
financial hardship and impoverishment from health care costs.
Access to health services ensures healthier people; while
financial risk protection prevents people from being pushed into
poverty.
Therefore, universal health coverage is a critical component of
sustainable development and poverty reduction, and a key
element to reducing social inequities.

8. 10 common causes of inefficiency :
1) Spending too much on medicines and health
technologies
2) Using them inappropriately,
3) Using ineffective medicines and technologies
4) Leakages and waste, again often for medicines
5) Hospital inefficiency particularly over-capacity
6) De-motivated health workers
7) Sometimes workers with the wrong skills in the wrong
places
8) Inappropriate mix between prevention, promotion,
treatment and rehabilitation
9) Inappropriate mix between levels of care
10)duplication of the service without good referral system .

9. What is needed to achieve it?

12. Funding models:
Compulsory insurance
Single payer
Tax-based financing
Social health insurance
Private insurance
Community-based health insurance

18. History:
The first move towards a national health insurance system was launched
in Germany in 1883. Other countries soon began to follow suit
.
Universal Health Coverage Day is celebrated annually on December 12 and is
promoted by the World Health Organization.
Healthcare in Egypt consists of both a public and private sector.
Public health coverage is offered through Ministry of Health, which operates a
series of medical facilities providing free health services.
There are two main private insurers:
• The Health Insurance Organization covers employed persons, students, and
widows through premiums deducted from employee salaries and employer
payrolls. It operates its own network of medical facilities and at times
contracts with private healthcare providers.
• The Curative Care Organization operates in specific governorates, and
contracts with other entities for provision of care. There are also private
insurance options, and a network of private healthcare providers and medical
facilities. Many mosques also operate their own clinics, especially in the large
cities.

19. General Organization of the Health System
Egypt has a highly pluralistic health care system, with many different
public and private providers and financing agents. Health services in
Egypt are currently managed, financed, and provided by agencies in
all three sectors of the economy—government, parastatal,
and private.