{"id":47223,"date":"2020-04-20T14:34:32","date_gmt":"2020-04-20T13:34:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=47223"},"modified":"2020-04-20T14:34:32","modified_gmt":"2020-04-20T13:34:32","slug":"the-role-of-universal-health-coverage-in-overcoming-the-covid-19-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2020\/04\/20\/the-role-of-universal-health-coverage-in-overcoming-the-covid-19-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"The role of universal health coverage in overcoming the covid-19 pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Amirhossein Takian,\u00a0<\/em><em>Mohsen Aarabi and\u00a0<\/em><em>Hajar Haghighi analyse c<\/em><em>ovid-19&#8217;s effect on the global economy and what it means for the sustainable development agenda and universal health coverage\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The dramatic impact of covid<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">-19 is a pertinent reminder for all countries, regardless of their income, of the need to renew political commitment to improving health as a central component of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) agenda.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The World Health Organization views universal health coverage (UHC) as key to ensuring health and wellbeing for all people of all ages<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and made it the fundamental <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">objective for all countries for attaining equitable and sustainable health outcomes.<sup>1<\/sup><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> UHC requires health system strengthening around people, institutions, and resources to build resilience.<sup>2<\/sup><\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A resilient health system is able to provide a timely response to emergencies through detection and prevention, while maintaining peace and protecting the economy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The covid-19 pandemic is illustrating, albeit on a much larger stage, the lessons learned from past outbreaks; that resilience is an essential and cost-effective feature of a health system addressing complex challenges. Those countries with effective universal health coverage, such as South Korea<sup>3<\/sup><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and Singapore,<sup>4<\/sup><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> have performed better during the covid-19 pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The impact of both natural and manmade disasters is exacerbated by weak health systems,<sup>5<\/sup><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and covid<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">-19 has overwhelmed the health systems of affected countries, including some of the world\u2019s wealthiest nations.<sup>6<\/sup><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It has put the spotlight on inadequate health security and preparedness, including inadequate healthcare facilities and resources such as shortages of hospital beds, medicines, ventilators and healthcare workforce.<sup>7<\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The pandemic is burning out national health systems in countries that have strived to provide UHC, hampering their pathways and ambitions to achieve the ethos of universal health coverage which is \u201cto leave no one behind.\u201d But the countries most affected by the pandemic are the ones that have done little in the past to strengthen their health system through appropriate investment in universal health coverage, such as the United States.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Iran is facing a unique paradox. It has transformed its health system to reach universal health coverage,<sup>8<\/sup><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> insured more than 90% of its 83 million population, has a well-established primary healthcare network, and increased access to quality care and comprehensive programmes for prevention and control of non-communicable diseases.<sup>9<\/sup><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And yet, Iran is the most affected Asian nation from covid-19, after China<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<sup>10<\/sup><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> This is due not only to shortcomings in integrating emergency and preparedness response into primary health care, but also to US sanctions hampering investment in and access to medicines and essential equipment.<sup>11<\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the global coordinator of the current pandemic, WHO should, now more than ever, strengthen its mission to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable, through advocating universal health coverage among its member states. Specific treatments and a vaccine for covid-19 seem at least one year away,<sup>12<\/sup><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0and in a few months the task will become much more complex when the flu hits and many nations face\u00a0 \u201cCovi-Flu\u201d, having to deal with the impact of<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">seasonal influenza at the same time as the consequences of the covid-19 crisis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Strengthening communities with surveillance systems built into primary health care; providing extra financial resources; expanding insurance coverage; increasing public awareness; ensuring sufficient medicines, diagnostics and equipment are available; and recruiting more healthcare staff are the essential steps towards universal health coverage needed in many countries over the next few months to prepare for Covi-Flu. Most importantly better governmental stewardship for creating strong and resilient health systems is required, a whole-of-government approach that must target all social determinants of health, and emergency investment in healthcare research and innovation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We are all in this together and need to act now. The dangers of &#8220;Covi-Flu&#8221; to the global economy and sustainable development is closer and more devastating than it might look.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Amirhossein Takian<\/strong> is associate dean, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Mohsen Aarabi<\/strong> is faculty of Department of Family Medicine, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Hajar Haghighi<\/strong> is a PhD Candidate in health policy, Department of Health Economics and Management, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Competing interests:<\/strong> none.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>References:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">World-Health-Organization. Thirteenth general programme of work 2019\u22122023; 2018 [cited 2020 Apr 2]. Available from: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/about\/what-we-do\/thirteenth-general-programme-of-work-2019---2023\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/www.who.int\/about\/what-we-do\/thirteenth-general-programme-of-work-2019&#8212;2023<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ghebreyesus T-A. Healthcare for all: every country can do it\u2014an essay by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. BMJ. 2019;367<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reuters. South Korea&#8217;s emergency exercise in December facilitated coronavirus testing, containment; 29 March 2020 [cited 2020 Apr 1]. Available from: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-health-coronavirus-southkorea-drills\/south-koreas-emergency-exercise-in-december-facilitated-coronavirus-testing-containment-idUSKBN21H0BQ\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-health-coronavirus-southkorea-drills\/south-koreas-emergency-exercise-in-december-facilitated-coronavirus-testing-containment-idUSKBN21H0BQ<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ng Y, Li Z, Chua Y-X, Chaw W-L, Zhao Z, Er B, et al. Evaluation of the effectiveness of surveillance and containment measures for the first 100 patients with COVID-19 in Singapore&#8211;January 2\u2013February 29, 2020. 2020.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Organization PAH. Resilient health systems CE158\/14. In: One hundred fifty-eighth session of the Executive Committee, Washington, 20-24 June 2016. Washington, 2016 [cited 2020 Apr 1]. Available from: <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.paho.org\/hq\/index.php?option=com_docman&amp;task=doc_download&amp;gid=34929&amp;Itemid=270&amp;lang=en\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">http:\/\/www.paho.org\/hq\/index.php?option=com_docman&amp;task=doc_download&amp;gid=34929&amp;Itemid=270&amp;lang=en<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Horton R. Offline: COVID-19 and the NHS\u2014\u201ca national scandal\u201d. The Lancet. 2020;395(10229):1022.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">World-Health-Organization. Critical preparedness, readiness and response actions for COVID-19; 19 March 2020 [cited 2020 Apr 2]. Available from: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/publications-detail\/critical-preparedness-readiness-and-response-actions-for-covid-19\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/www.who.int\/publications-detail\/critical-preparedness-readiness-and-response-actions-for-covid-19<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Doshmangir L, Bazyar M, Majdzadeh R, Takian A. So Near, so far: four decades of health policy reforms in Iran, achievements and challenges. Archives of Iranian medicine. 2019;22(10):592.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">ix <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bakhtiari A, Takian A, Majdzadeh R, Haghdoost A-A. Assessment and prioritization of the WHO \u201cbest buys\u201d and other recommended interventions for the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases in Iran. BMC Public Health. 2020;20(1):1-16.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">x <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Raoofi A, Takian A, Akbari Sari A, Olyaeemanesh A, Haghighi H, Aarabi M. COVID-19 pandemic and comparative health policy learning in Iran. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Archives of Iranian Medicine<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. 2020;23(4):220\u2013234. doi: 10.34172\/aim.2020.02.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Takian A, Raoofi A, Kazempour-Ardebili S. COVID-19 battle during the toughest sanctions against Iran. The Lancet. 2020.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">TED-Talks. Bill Gates: How we must respond to the COVID-19 pandemic; 25 march 2020 [cited 2020 Apr 1].Available from: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ted.com\/talks\/bill_gates_how_we_must_respond_to_the_coronavirus_pandemic\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/www.ted.com\/talks\/bill_gates_how_we_must_respond_to_the_coronavirus_pandemic<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amirhossein Takian,\u00a0Mohsen Aarabi and\u00a0Hajar Haghighi analyse covid-19&#8217;s effect on the global economy and what it means for the sustainable development agenda and universal health coverage\u00a0 [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2020\/04\/20\/the-role-of-universal-health-coverage-in-overcoming-the-covid-19-pandemic\/\">More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global-health"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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