Meaning of Universal Health Coverage According to WHO (Essay Sample)

Meaning of Universal Health Coverage According to WHO
Introduction
One of the most evident issues affecting people from different countries and communities is the high cost of healthcare services. The high cost of healthcare services has caused many people to sink into poverty as they raise healthcare bills. Other people have lost their lives because of a lack of quality healthcare. In this essay, we will explore the WHO’s thoughts on universal healthcare and some of the achievements and failures of the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) plan.
Meaning of UHC according to WHO
According to the World Health Organization, Universal Health Coverage is a provision where different communities and individuals can access health services without financial challenges (WHO, 2021). The WHO adds that UHC includes the whole spectrum of quality health services, essential, prevention and promotion of health, rehabilitation, treatment, and palliative care throughout human life (WHO, 2021). The WHO's target for the UHC is that by 2025, at least one billion people from different communities and countries will be beneficiaries of UHC and protected from emergency health. In addition, the World Health Organization also has a target that by the time it gets to 2025, another additional one billion people will be benefiting from well-being and better health as a result of UHC (WHO, 2021). In 2015, when countries in the world were adopting Strategic Development Goals, the achievement of the UHC was one of the critical targets that different nations in the world set (WHO, 2021). According to the WHO, countries that make efforts to achieve UHC will also witness a significant improvement in other health-related targets. When there is good health, adults can earn while children can manage to learn (WHO, 2021). Achievement of the UHC also helps people avoid poverty and offers the foundation for economic improvement.
Since the number one goal of UHC, according to the WHO, is ensuring that all people everywhere can obtain the care that they need from any part of the world at any time, it is an indication that the approach that the WHO is taking in the issues of UHC is right-based. A right-based view is one where people have access to some services because they are entitled to access them, and denying them such services is wrong according to the law. The WHO's dream of UHC is to ensure that people from all over the world are entitled to quality healthcare regardless of their social, political or economic status.
WHO’s Vision for Universal Health Coverage
WHO's vision of Universal Health Coverage is to have a system where communities and individuals access healthcare without struggling financially and prevent people from sinking into poverty because of an illness (WHO, 2019). The WHO holds that there are many incidents from all over the globe where people have been forced to sell properties and possessions, use their life savings or end up in debt in the quest to raise the money required for medical services (WHO, 2019). In most cases, diseases that require a significant amount of money to treat make people poor (WHO, 2019). However, the UHC is supposed to prevent such occurrences since its purpose is to cater for all financial costs that any person from any community might be required to pay as service fees in the healthcare facilities.