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WHS 2023: How can access to health innovations be made more equitable?

November 28, 2023

WHS 2023: How can access to health innovations be made more equitable?

The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare brutal inequities in access to medical breakthroughs between Global North and South. A high-level panel debates how this can be changed.

WHS 2023: Reimagining Universal Health Coverage to Leave No One Behind

October 30, 2023

WHS 2023: Reimagining Universal Health Coverage to Leave No One Behind

What will it take to bridge the health gap for people with disabilities and provide access to assistive technology for all those who need it?

Zanzibar introduces Universal Health Insurance with co-ordinated P4H support

September 25, 2023

Zanzibar introduces Universal Health Insurance with co-ordinated P4H support

What is unique about a global programme’s technical support when it comes to setting up a sustainable health financing system in a low-income country? Zanzibar’s story, and how the GIZ global programme BACKUP Health facilitated it, is a case in point. 

The Third Catalyst Dialogue – on financing health for all – was launched at the 2023 Global Health Talk

June 26, 2023

The Third Catalyst Dialogue – on financing health for all – was launched at the 2023 Global Health Talk

High-level experts participated in a panel discussion at the Global Health Talk, where they debated recommendations for German policy-makers and parliamentarians on how to raise more funds for health at all levels: global, regional and national.

India’s transgender people gain access to social health insurance

April 12, 2023

India’s transgender people gain access to social health insurance

In an inspiring example of Germany’s feminist development policy in action, the Indo-German Universal Health Coverage (IGUHC) project is supporting the Government of India to extend social health insurance to the transgender community, upholding their rights to free, quality health services.

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Universal Health Coverage

Under Universal Health Coverage all people have access to adequate healthcare without suffering financial hardship paying for it.

Access to healthcare is a human right. Yet, more than half of the world’s population currently does not have full coverage of essential health services. Over 90 million people a year are pushed into extreme poverty (having to live on less than US$1.90 a day) because they have to pay for health care or are unable to work due to illness. In 2005, all member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) subscribed to the goal of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) – ensuring that all people have access to healthcare without suffering financial hardship paying for it. 

’Universal health coverage (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’ (WHO, 2019).

Ensuring financial protection for all is a complex and lengthy undertaking that raises numerous systemic – and redistributive – questions about how a state intends to guarantee and promote a basic human right of its citizens. Supporting partner countries in this endeavour is one of the priorities of German development cooperation in health and social protection, as reflected in the articles, events and studies presented on this page. 

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