Browsing by Person "Yates, Robert"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2

Driving universal health reforms through crises and shocks: Final report on the work of the Chatham House Commission for Universal Health
(Royal Institute of International Affairs, 2024-06-20) Yates, Robert; Witter, Sophie; Hunsaker, Brooke
Universal health coverage (UHC) is achieved when everyone receives the health services they need, free at the point of delivery. Target 3.8 of the Sustainable Development Goals sets the ambition for all countries to achieve UHC by 2030, but global indicators for health coverage and financial protection have been lagging since 2015. The series of crises and shocks the world has suffered in recent years – including disease outbreaks, financial crises, multiple conflicts and the deepening impacts of climate change – have raised fears that commitments to UHC will be seriously undermined. In 2022, in light of these concerns, Chatham House established the Commission for Universal Health to look at ways to support countries in maintaining and accelerating progress towards UHC. Drawing on the work of the commission, this report explores examples of where, and how, conditions of crisis and shock have had a catalytic role in driving universal health initiatives, and offers recommendations for leaders currently considering launching or expanding UHC reforms. The report endorses the World Health Organization’s finding that investment of an additional 1 per cent of GDP for primary healthcare is a realistic target for countries transitioning to UHC. While acknowledging that affordability is a legitimate concern for many countries at a time of resource constraints, the authors argue that universal entitlement is not necessarily about spending more. Instead, it is about spending money better: by pooling resources, UHC offers the possibility of providing better healthcare for more people more cost-effectively than alternative financing models.
Minding the gaps: health financing, universal health coverage and gender
(Oxford University Press, 2017-07-25) Witter, Sophie; Govender, Veloshnee; Ravindran, T. K. Sundari; Yates, Robert
In a webinar in 2015 on health financing and gender, the question was raised why we need to focus on gender, given that a well-functioning system moving towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) will automatically be equitable and gender balanced. This article provides a reflection on this question from a panel of health financing and gender experts. We trace the evidence of how health-financing reforms have impacted gender and health access through a general literature review and a more detailed case-study of India. We find that unless explicit attention is paid to gender and its intersectionality with other social stratifications, through explicit protection and careful linking of benefits to needs of target populations (e.g. poor women, unemployed men, femaleheaded households), movement towards UHC can fail to achieve gender balance or improve equity, and may even exacerbate gender inequity. Political trade-offs are made on the road to UHC and the needs of less powerful groups, which can include women and children, are not necessarily given priority. We identify the need for closer collaboration between health economists and gender experts, and highlight a number of research gaps in this field which should be addressed. While some aspects of cost sharing and some analysis of expenditure on maternal and child health have been analysed from a gender perspective, there is a much richer set of research questions to be explored to guide policy making. Given the political nature of UHC decisions, political economy as well as technical research should be prioritized. We conclude that countries should adopt an equitable approach towards achieving UHC and, therefore, prioritize high-need groups and those requiring additional financial protection, in particular women and children. This constitutes the 'progressive universalism' advocated for by the 2013 Lancet Commission on Investing in Health.