This is a huge victory for the health for all movement.
SDG 3 is: ‘to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all’, and includes target 3.8: ‘to achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential healthcare services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all.’
Palliative care is a defining aspect of UHC, which includes promotive, preventive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative health services.
A critical aspect of UHC is “financial risk protection”, which means that people can access the health services they need without being forced into poverty or financial hardship.
The indicator previously agreed upon to measure UHC was: ‘number of people covered by health insurance or a public health system per 1000 population’. However, this was seen as invalid as insurance is not a measure of financial risk protection.
Following an open consultation on possible refinements for certain indicators in the global indicator framework for the SDGs, the new indicator: ‘proportion of population with large household expenditures on heath as a share of total household expenditure or income’ was included.
The final indicator refinement proposal will be submitted to the 48th UN Statistical Commission in March 2017 for the formal approval.
You can read more about the new indicator on the International Health Partnership website.
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