Minding the gaps: health financing, universal health coverage and gender

Insufficient attention has been paid to the interaction of gender and health financing; we call for better collaboration to fill this gap.<br />While Universal Health Coverage (UHC) emphasizes equity, some groups have higher health needs and lower financing capabilities than others; this implies the need for progressive universalism, which puts the needs of vulnerable groups like women and children first.<br />Broad recommendations from the review include public financing of health care services with resources mobilized from progressive taxation of income and wealth; firm action by governments to regulate the private health sector, especially in the area of price controls; attention to coverage of different groups of women when implementing health financing reforms; and social protection schemes that go beyond women from households below the poverty line and with packages covering more than maternal health.<br />The underlying political and social determinants that undermine access for vulnerable and marginalized groups (e.g. poor indigenous women, adolescents) must also be tackled to achieve the broader equity and effectiveness goals of UHC.

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Witter S, Govender V, Ravindran TKS, Yates R. Minding the gaps: health financing, universal health coverage and gender. Health Policy and Planning. 2017; 32(suppl 5):v4-v12. doi:10.1093/heapol/czx063