TheHEALTH November/December 2025 | Page 16

16 GLOBAL HEALTH The HEALTH | November-December. 2025

Universal health unfulfilled

• Despite advancements in health service coverage since 2000, significant gaps remain for the poorest populations.
• High out-of-pocket costs and rising medicine prices pose severe challenges to achieving universal health coverage.
• As the 2030 deadline approaches, urgent political commitment and strategic investments are vital to provide free essential services to vulnerable populations.

SINCE 2000, most countries have made progress in expanding health service coverage and reducing financial hardship, as shown by the WHO and World Bank Group, highlighting key indicators for policy action.

These two indicators are the foundation of universal health coverage( UHC), the global commitment that everyone, everywhere can access the care they need without financial hardship by 2030.
The UHC Global Monitoring Report 2025 shows that health service coverage, measured by the Service Coverage Index( SCI), rose from 54 to 71 points between 2000 and 2023.
Meanwhile, the share of people experiencing financial hardship due to significant and impoverishing out-of-pocket( OOP) health payments declined from 34 per cent to 26 per cent between 2000 and 2022.
FRONTLINE HEROES: Healthcare workers play a crucial role in expanding access, often facing significant challenges in undeserved areas.
UHC Global Monitoring Report 2025
However, the report cautions that the poorest populations continue to bear the heaviest burden of unaffordable health costs, with 1.6 billion people pushed further into poverty, underscoring the need for urgent action.
Overall, an estimated 4.6 billion people worldwide still lack access to essential health services, and 2.1 billion people experience financial hardship to access health care, including the 1.6 billion people living in poverty or pushed deeper into it due to health expenses.
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: " Universal health coverage
is the ultimate expression of the right to health, but this report shows that for billions of people who cannot access or afford the health services they need, that right remains out of reach."
" In the context of severe cuts to international aid, now is the time for countries to