World Bank President Jim Kim convened an impressive panel on the sidelines of the bank’s spring meetings on Friday to lend their voices to the growing chorus of support for a global goal for universal health coverage by 2030.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and Nigerian finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala were among those who, on Friday, discussed the importance of including a universal health coverage goal in the global development framework that is currently being drafted by world leaders.
Larry Summers, the former president of Harvard and an economic advisor to U.S. President Barack Obama, was perhaps the most unlikely member of the group. But his presence underscored a central message of the gathering: that investments in health care pay off big time for economies, developed or developing.