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This paper exploits the staggered rollout of Thailand's universal health coverage scheme to estimate its impacts on whether individuals report themselves as being too ill to work. The statistical power comes from the fact that there is an average of 62,000 respondents in the labor force survey at each survey date and no less than 68 survey dates, most of which are just one month apart. The analysis finds that universal coverage reduced the likelihood of people reporting themselves to be too sick to work: the authors estimate the effect to be -0.004 one year after universal coverage and -0.007 three years after. The estimated effects are much larger among those age 65 and over. Universal coverage had a much larger effect on health (about four times larger) than the Village Fund scheme, which provided free credit to rural households through a subsidized microcredit scheme and which was rolled out around the same time as universal coverage.

Health Economics & Finance --- Health insurance --- Health Law --- Health Monitoring & Evaluation --- Health Systems Development & Reform --- Population Policies --- Public Sector Development --- Social Development --- Universal health coverage

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The last few years have seen a growing commitment worldwide to universal health coverage (UHC). Yet there is a lack of clarity on how to measure progress towards UHC. This paper proposes a 'mashup' index that captures both aspects of UHC: that everyone-irrespective of their ability-to-pay-gets the health services they need; and that nobody suffers undue financial hardship as a result of receiving care. Service coverage is broken down into prevention and treatment, and financial protection into impoverishment and catastrophic spending; nationally representative household survey data are used to adjust population averages to capture inequalities between the poor and better off; nonlinear tradeoffs are allowed between and within the two dimensions of the UHC index; and all indicators are expressed such that scores run from 0 to 100, and higher scores are better. In a sample of 24 countries for which there are detailed information on UHC-inspired reforms, a cluster of high-performing countries emerges with UHC scores of between 79 and 84 (Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and South Africa) and a cluster of low-performing countries emerges with UHC scores in the range 35-57 (Ethiopia, Guatemala, India, Indonesia and Vietnam). Countries have mostly improved their UHC scores between the earliest and latest years for which there are data-by about 5 points on average; however, the improvement has come from increases in receipt of key health interventions, not from reductions in the incidence of out-of-pocket payments on welfare.

Communities & human settlements --- Equity --- Financial protection --- Health economics & finance --- Health law --- Health monitoring & evaluation --- Health systems development & reform --- Health, nutrition and population --- Housing & human habitats --- Law and development --- Service coverage --- Universal health coverage

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Universal Health Coverage as defined by the World Health Organization encompasses equal access for all to good quality health services and with no financial risk for those in need of them. As such it is a modern term formulated on western ideas of health, however the philosophy it conveys has existed for many centuries across different regions and cultures of the world. 'Health For All' is based on series of seminars which formed part of the World Health Organization's Global Health Histories project. It explores the development of universal health coverage in diverse contexts, the political and economic trends that effected the running of these schemes, and, not least, critical perspectives into the variety of links between structures of national universal healthcare systems.

Primary health care. --- Public health. --- Right to health. --- Health services accessibility. --- World Health Organization. --- global health histories project --- world health organization --- health services --- universal health coverage --- national universal healthcare systems

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As a low-income country, Ethiopia has made impressive progress in improving health outcomes. This report examines how Ethiopia's Health Extension Program (HEP) has contributed to the country's move toward Univeral Health Coverage (UHC), and to shed light on how other countries may learn from Ethiopia's experiences of HEP when designing their own path to UHC. HEP is one of the government's UHC strategies introduced in a context of limited resources and low coverage of essential health services. The key aspects of the program include the capacity building and mobilization of more than 30, 000 Health Extension Workers (HEWs) targeting more than 12 million model families, and the mobilization of "health development army" to support the community-based health system. Using the HEP-UHC conceptual model and data from Demographic and Health Surveys, the study examines how the HEP has contributed to the country's move toward UHC. During the period that the HEP has been implemented, the country has experienced significant improvements in many dimensions: in terms of socioeconomic, psychological, behavioral, and biological dimensions of the beneficiaries; and in terms of the coverage of health care services. The study finds an accelerated rate of improvements among the rural, less-educated, and the poor population, which is leading to an overall reduction in equity gaps and improvements in the equity indicators including the concentration indices - that suggest a more equitable distribution of resources and health outcomes. The HEP in Ethiopia has demonstrated that an institutionalized community approach is effective in helping a country make progress toward UHC. The elements of success in the HEP include the emphasis on community mobilization which identifies community priorities, engages and empowers community members, and supports their ability to solve local problems. The other aspect of HEP is the emphasis on institutionalization of the activities, which addresses the sustainability of community programs through high level of political commitment, and effective coordination of national policies and leveraging of support from partners. These findings may offer useful lessons for other low income countries facing similar challenges in developing and implementing a sustainable UHC strategy.

Community Health Worker --- Ethiopia Health --- Health Extension Workers --- Health Policy --- Health worker training --- Human Resources for Health --- Primary Health Care --- Recruitment and retention --- Rural Health --- Universal Health Coverage --- Ethiopia --- Economic policy.

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This paper outlines changes that have been made in the 2019 version of the Health Equity and Financial Protection Indicators database. On the financial protection side, the changes include an increase in the number of indicators from five to 14; revisions to several previous data points, reflecting the analysis of new surveys (or adaptations thereof); and refinements to the estimation of out-of-pocket expenditures. On the health equity side, the 2019 database includes 198 more data points than the 9,733 in the 2018 database, reflecting the addition of 535 new datapoints, and the dropping of 337 previously included data points now considered to be substandard.

Cancer --- Financial Protection --- Health --- Health Care Services Industry --- Health Economics and Finance --- Health Equity --- Health Indicators --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Industry --- Inequality --- MDGs --- Millennium Development Goals --- Out-of-Pocket Health Expenditures --- Poverty --- Poverty Reduction --- SDGs --- Sustainable Development Goals --- Universal Health Coverage