International Journal of Health Policy and Management

International Journal of Health Policy and Management

Monitoring Frameworks for Universal Health Coverage: What About High-Income Countries?

Document Type : Short Communication

Authors
Nicole Bergen 1
Arne Ruckert 2
Ronald Labonté 3
1 Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada
2 Faculty of Medicine, School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada
3 Canada Research Chair, Globalization and Health Equity, Faculty of Medicine, School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada
10.15171/ijhpm.2019.21
Abstract
Implementing universal health coverage (UHC) is widely perceived to be central to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and is a work program priority of the World Health Organization (WHO). Much has already been written about how low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) can monitor progress towards UHC, with various UHC monitoring frameworks available in the literature. However, we suggest that these frameworks are largely irrelevant in high-income contexts and that the international community still needs to develop UHC monitoring framework meaningful for high-income countries (HICs). As a first step, this short communication presents preliminary findings from a literature review and document analysis on how various countries monitor their own progress towards achieving UHC. It furthermore offers considerations to guide meaningful UHC monitoring and reflects on pertinent challenges and tensions to inform future research on UHC implementation in HIC settings.

Highlights

Supplementary File 1 (Download)

Keywords
Universal Health Coverage
High-Income Countries
Sustainable Development Goals
Monitoring
Subjects
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International Journal of Health Policy and Management
Volume 8, Issue 7
July 2019
Pages 387-393

  • Received Date 23 October 2018
  • Revised Date 16 January 2019
  • Accepted Date 07 April 2019
  • First Published Date 01 July 2019
  • Published Date 01 July 2019