Universal Health Coverage

The United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will end in 2015 and will be replaced by Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The MDGs were successful in bringing national governments together and highlighted the importance of health in human development. However, the MDGs had a very specific disease focus, did not incorporate noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), and failed to have a significant effect on reducing health inequalities within and between countries (Save the Children 2012; UNSDSN 2013). The new SDGs will provide a framework for integrating action across multiple sectors to enable human development to proceed in a manner that optimizes the use of limited resources without endangering sustainability. In recent months, consultations and high-level panel meetings have deliberated on how health can be included in the SDGs and what would be appropriate indicators for any new global health goal(s) (Save the Children 2012; United Nations 2013; UNSDSN 2013). One common theme emerging from these consultations is universal health coverage (UHC), either as a specific health goal or as a means of achieving health gains in the post-2015 SDGs. The call for UHC has grown stronger over the past decade. The Rio +20 summit on sustainable development recognized UHC for enhancing “health, social cohesion and sustainable human and economic development and a precursor to strengthen national health systems” (United Nations 2012). Dr Margaret Chan, the director general of World Health Organization (WHO), has called UHC the “the single most powerful concept that public health has to offer” (Holmes 2012), and Dr Jim Yong Kim, the president of the World Bank, has called for the global achievement of UHC “within this generation” (World Bank 2013). A unique opportunity currently exists to influence global health policy and ensure that oral health is recognized as a key public health priority and is integrated into the emerging UHC policy agenda.