Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Day is celebrated each year on 12 December. This is the date set aside to call on leaders to make smarter investments and fast track efforts towards “Health for all.” This year marks five years since the United Nations officially adopted 12.12 as International Universal Health Coverage Day and three years since countries adopted the Political Declaration on Universal Health Coverage efforts that would not have been possible without grassroots campaigns driven by civil society members and advocates around the world.
This year’s theme, “Build the world we want: A healthy future for all,” emphasizes that in order to build strong health systems we need equity, trust, healthy environments, investments and accountability. This year’s UHC Day is nine months ahead of the 2023 High-Level Meeting on UHC, making it a particularly important moment to highlight the call to achieve Health for All by 2030.
It is important for national leaders in palliative care and key policy makers to be engaged, involved and active in the advocacy efforts to include palliative care in the national health systems. There is no UHC without the inclusion of palliative care to ensure that there is access to quality palliative care for all who need it.
The Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA) is launching an advocacy factsheet for palliative care and UHC. Palliative care is a fundamental human right and an integral component of UHC. UHC is essential to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 3 relating to health.
We have compiled a factsheet you can use as a reference in your advocacy efforts as we continue to push for the full integration of palliative care services in the health sector. We’re also preparing a UHC Toolkit for future use.
Please find out more about the factsheet and download it HERE.
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