Universal health coverage

How it is used

Shortened to UHC and part of the Sustainable Development Goals (target 3.8). Countries move towards, achieve or expand UHC. Discussions focus on service coverage, financial protection and out-of-pocket spending.

Example sentences

1. Universal health coverage means a farmer should not have to sell land to pay a hospital bill.

2. The ministry presented its roadmap towards universal health coverage.

Common collocations

• achieve universal health coverage
• progress towards UHC
• financial protection
• out-of-pocket spending

Related terms

• primary health careEssential, community-based health care that is people's first point of contact with the health system, covering prevention, treatment of common conditions and health promotion close to where they live.
• health systemAll the organisations, people, resources and actions whose main purpose is to promote, restore or maintain health in a country, including financing, workforce, services and governance.
• Sustainable Development GoalsSeventeen global goals adopted by all UN member states in 2015 to end poverty, protect the planet and improve lives by 2030; Goal 3 is about health and well-being.
• health equityThe situation in which everyone has a fair chance to be as healthy as possible, with no avoidable or unfair differences in health between social groups.
• access to healthcareThe ability of people to get the health services they need when they need them, which depends on cost, distance, waiting times, language and whether the services exist at all.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

• universal health coverage · Healthcare Management

More terms: Global Health and Health Systems

• public health
• WHO
• noncommunicable disease
• International Health Regulations
• public health emergency of international concern
• antimicrobial resistance
• low- and middle-income countries
• CDC