The expert group in charge of developing the indicators for the Sustainable Development Goals has agreed to reconsider an indicator for universal health coverage.
On Friday, members of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on the SDGs accepted the World Health Organization and World Bank’s proposed indicator on financial protection for SDG target 3.8, which aims to achieve UHC. The decision came months after intense lobbying and campaigning by civil society organizations and other global health actors, who strongly opposed any indicator that measures people’s access to health care services based on insurance coverage alone.
The WHO and World Bank originally put forward an indicator that looks at the “fraction of the population protected against catastrophic/impoverishing out-of-pocket health expenditure” as a means to measure financial protection. In February 2016 the IAEG changed the indicator to “number of people covered by health insurance or public health system per 1,000 population.”
About the author
Jenny Lei Ravelo@JennyLeiRavelo
Jenny Lei Ravelo is a Devex Senior Reporter based in Manila. She covers global health, with a particular focus on the World Health Organization, and other development and humanitarian aid trends in Asia Pacific. Prior to Devex, she wrote for ABS-CBN, one of the largest broadcasting networks in the Philippines, and was a copy editor for various international scientific journals. She received her journalism degree from the University of Santo Tomas.
