Whither universal health coverage in India?

India's Universal Health Coverage policy should focus on the reduction of inequalities in our core health outcomes

- ALI MEHDI

DECEMBER 12 is Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Day. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), UHC means that "all people have access to the full range of quality health services they need, when and where they need them, without financial hardship" (bit.ly/3ZkKMJC).

Quality, defined as "the degree to which health services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes", is a core dimension of UHC. "Access without quality can be considered an empty universal health coverage promise" since "even if the world achieved essential health coverage and financial protection, health outcomes would still be poor if services were low-quality and unsafe", argues a WHO, OECD, and World Bank report (bit.ly/3OFZJ4c).

India's journey towards UHC started around Britain's social security reforms. William Beveridge, born in India in 1879, presented a report on Social Insurance and Allied Services to the British government in 1942, which became the basis for its National Health Service (NHS) Act of 1946. In India, B.P. Adarkar, who Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel referred to as 'Chhota Beveridge', was appointed in 1943 to develop a plan for industrial workers.