UHC Day 2024: how to get the most out of this year’s campaign for your country?

On October 3, the official launch of the 2024 UHC Day campaign took place at a webinar, which our team joined. This year, we will focus worldwide on the enormous importance of reducing financial barriers to health services on the way to accelerating progress towards health and well-being. The colleagues of UHC2030 and the Coalition of Partnerships for UHC and Global Health not only shared valuable resources and answered questions about the campaign, but also presented concrete ideas on how all of us can engage with it to strengthen own advocacy efforts.

What is the role of HAC?

In alignment with HAC commitment to equitable healthcare access, we provided Russian language translation for participants from  the EECA region, ensuring inclusive engagement in this critical dialogue towards UHC in different parts of the world.

Why is it important today?

Over the past two decades, financial protection in healthcare has significantly deteriorated. An alarming 2 billion people experience financial hardship, and 1.3 billion are pushed into poverty due to out-of-pocket health costs. This year’s UHC Day campaign emphasizes the urgent need for countries to strengthen financial protection and therefore reduce financial barriers to essential both health services and products, particularly for the poorest and most vulnerable populations. Also, investing in UHC works backwards for governments – increasing workforce participation and productivity, as well as building resilience in individuals, families and communities. 

To what extent should governments listen to us?

In adopting the Sustainable Development Agenda in 2015, heads of state and governments from 193 UN Members countries committed to ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for everyone. They reiterated these commitments in the political declarations adopted during the 2019 and 2023 high level meetings on UHC. And yet 4.5 billion people still do not have access to essential health services. 

The meeting in the format of webinar highlighted the critical need to advance efforts against HIV and non-communicable diseases, as well as to improve maternal, newborn, adolescent and child health. Moreover it emphasized the importance of decisive action for international not only for national, but at the same time for local decision-makers to remove financial barriers to healthcare and protect people from impoverishing health costs.

What can be achieved through the campaign?

Being a global imperative, UHC requires inclusive participation – thus we encourage all stakeholders, advocates, and key community members to engage with the 2024 UHC Day campaign and unite our efforts on December 12, 2024 to advocate for at least following, but not only policies transformations or improvements:
– to adopt and implement laws to protect people from impoverishing health costs, 
– to reduce the cost of the package of basic medical services,
– to establish national public health schemes that cover health costs for the entire population and are financed by national taxes, 
– to minimize or remove user charges for those most in need, including people with low income and/or chronic conditions,
– to ensure a sufficient number of  health and care workers with an optimal skills mix at all levels of the health system, who are equitably distributed, adequately supported, and enjoying decent work,
– to make universal health coverage and financial protection for health a national priority.

What’s next?

For more information on how to get involved with the UHC Day campaign and strengthen your advocacy, please:
✔️ Sign up for UHC Day Updates and receive step-by-step instructions on how to prepare your UHC Day campaign.
✔️ Start using and promoting the materials and messages on the UHC Day campaign toolkit.
✔️ Register for the UHC Day virtual letter-writing workshop for youth on October 17, 2024. This 1-hour workshop will include hands-on exercises for participants to effectively craft hooks and key asks for their governments to accelerate action on UHC and financial protection. 
✔️ Download, personalize, and send the UHC advocacy letter template (available in English, French and Spanish) to urge leaders to make UHC and financial protection a priority!
✔️ Subscribe for the UHC2030 Newsletter and follow the organizers on social media (X: UHC2030 and CSEM / LinkedIn: UHC2030) to stay informed on relevant events and resources.
✔️ If missed, watch the recording of the first webinar here.